Found
by Amastacia Jadescion
Summary: SasuNaru. A "Sasuke Returns!" Fic. Naruto finally finds Sasuke after years of searching. Life goes on. A bit of comedy, romance, and suspense when I can force myself. No real angst if that's your thing. Canon until events after Pein's attack.
1. Tadaima

Chapter 1

'Tadaima'

It was a beautiful morning. The sun was just rising over the eastern horizon causing the dew-dropped surroundings to sparkle as they caught the first golden rays of the day; the birds were beginning their morning song. All over Konoha you could see signs of the people waking. Naruto Uzumaki lay sprawled in his bed, legs entangled in a mass of navy blue silk, staring at his ceiling. For a variety of reasons, the blonde had been forbidden to actively search for his missing raven haired friend. Naruto being who he was had been searching for Sasuke for six months now almost non-stop. Of course no one else in the village knew about his search, thanks to his clever use of his kage bunshin, though the continued use of his jutsu was starting to fatigue him and hints of dark circles could be seen around his crystal blue eyes.

"Today... Today I'll find you! Ne? Sasuke?" Naruto said to himself, glancing at a framed picture on his nightstand. "Itachi's dead, Akatsuki was wiped out. Where are you?"

He gave a deep sigh and sat up. He didn't want to get out of bed yet, he was still tired, but he had a mission briefing this morning and Granny Tsunade would beat him up if he was late again. Naruto couldn't suppress the shudder that ran through him as memories of his last briefing ran through his mind. An hour later Naruto had showered, dressed, and had just finished eating his morning ramen. He had packed all the things he would need for today's mission, and had fed the stray black cat he adopted, that always slept outside his bedroom window.

"Yosh! Almost ready to go!" With that his hands began to form the necessary seals, "Kage Bunshin No Justu!", and instantly five exact copies of himself appeared. "Alright, you guys know what to do." The five copies nodded their heads in unison, and one by one the jumped out of his bedroom window.

As the last bunshin's head disappeared from view, the sleepy cat, as if on cue, jumped up into the window sill. "Watch the house for me, Teme, while I'm gone." Naruto said to the cat, scratching behind its ears. The cat looked up at the blonde, "Nyaa!", and gently bit his finger. "Teme, always the biter." Naruto thought to himself with a smile. With a last glance in the mirror, and a slight frown at the faint circles under his eyes, Naruto left his apartment and made his way to the Hokage's office.

Not more than thirty minutes later Naruto arrived back at his apartment door. "Damn Granny Tsunade!" He muttered to himself as he let himself in. Slamming the door behind him, and tossing his knapsack into a corner, Naruto threw himself on his couch. They had taken him off the mission. Everyone had said, with no reservations, that he looked like shit.

_"Damn! I didn't think it was that noticeable... I really need to get some rest, these bunshin are wearing me out... but I can't dispel them! That damn Tsunade won't let me look for Sasuke! This is the only way... I can't give up on him..." _Naruto thought with a sob, tears forming in his big blue eyes. In reality he was exhausted and it was making him a bit over emotional. Stifling a yawn he rose from the couch and made his way into his room.

"Anything happen Teme?" He asked, glancing at the cat who was still sunbathing in its favorite spot. The cat gave Naruto a curious glance, yawned, and arched its back in a long stretch. As Naruto sat down on his bed, the cat leaped from its perch and settled into the blondes lap. Naruto began scratching behind its ears absently, lost in thought.

_"Sometimes having a healer for a Hokage is a pain. That woman can see an ailment a mile away! And it's even worse when Sakura is around! She's like a Tsunade clone these days!" _He ranted in his head. Sighing, he removed the cat from his lap and lay down. "Ah well, at least they gave me a month off. I can get some rest and regain some energy to look for Sasuke." He said to no one. Ten minutes later, he was asleep.

* * *

...Meanwhile...

* * *

A blonde ninja jumped from tree to tree in the depths of the Fire Country forest. His eyes scanned his surroundings, ears perked for the slightest sound. The bunshin glanced at the sky.

_"Damn! It'll rain soon, better find some cover." _He thought to himself. His thought barely completed, the sky opened up and the rain began to fall. _"If I remember right, there's a cave system near here. With darkness almost here, and all this rain, I can't see anything." _He sighed. As he traversed the forest canopy, the branches grew slick with rainfall. Just as the forest began to clear, Naruto's foot slipped and he fell to the ground.

"Okay... OW! That fuckin' hurt!" The bunshin yelled up at the limb. "I almost extinguished myself, damn. You'd think I'd be able to run properly in the rain by now!" Naruto rose to his feet. He looked around at his surroundings. Roughly fifty feet away he spotted the opening of one of the many caves that dotted the landscape. Limping slightly he made his way towards the shelter.

As he neared the entrance, a cold voice rang out from within. "Who's there?" Naruto stopped dead in his tracks, a shiver running down his spine. "I said who's there?" The voice called out again.

"Uhhhhh... I'm a Konoha ninja, I slipped on a limb in the forest. The rains made it wet you see. I was just looking for somewhere to wait out the rain." Naruto started walking toward the cave entrance.

That voice, he knew that voice. "Why are you here?" Came the voice, quieter now. Naruto had reached the entrance to the cave. Inside a small fire was lit, and a camp of sorts had been set up. A dark figure leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and face hidden in shadow. The bunshin took one step inside, getting out of the rain, he was soaked.

"I asked why you're here, bunshin!"

A smile too big for the blonds face leapt to his lips, tears sprang to his eyes. "I'm here, for you. Though I admit, I never thought I would find you here... Sasuke."

Sasuke stepped out from the shadows. "Hn." The raven haired boy sat down beside the fire, adjusted the kettle of water boiling there and stared into the dancing flames. Naruto, unsure what Sasuke would do or say, just stood in the entrance, his huge smile never leaving his face.

"Well come in, bunshin." Overcome with emotion triggered by the familiar sound in his best friends tone, Naruto couldn't take it anymore, he took three steps toward the man he had been searching years for, and fell to his knees sobbing.

"Oi! Bunshin! What are you doing?" Sasuke said looking up from the fire.

"Sas...Sasu...Sasuke!" Naruto cried.

Sasuke inertly chuckled, "Same 'old dobe, even if you are only a clone." Naruto looked up, smiling, wiping the tears from his eyes. He got up and sat down by the fire.

"How'd you know I was a bunshin?"

"Seriously?" Sasuke asked, his dark eyes widening a little, giving a little chuckle. "It's easy when there's only one of you, it's when that damn dobe creates a hundred of you guys that things start getting confusing." Naruto smiled at Sasuke, but sadness touched his eyes. "What bunshin? Sad you're an incompetent ninja who can't run in the rain?"

"You know you don't have to call me bunshin! And I can run just fine!" Naruto puffed out his cheeks in a pout. Sasuke just rolled his eyes.

"But you are a bunshin, get over it. And your ankle says otherwise."

"Ne, Sasuke?"

"Hmmm?" Sasuke asked as he got up and started rummaging in a sack near the back of the cave.

"You know why I'm here right?" Sasuke stopped, sighed, and returned to the fireside, a cup of instant ramen in his hand.

"Yeah, I know. But I won't return with a bunshin. Why are you out here anyways, where's the dobe?" He asked, looking the bunshin in the eyes, those crystal blue eyes that had stared him down countless times with a fiery passion that didn't exist anywhere else in this world. But the clone wasn't paying any attention. Naruto was staring at the cup of ramen in Sasuke's ivory hand, eyes going wide. Licking his lips a little, he glanced up at the raven haired boy's face, a desirous look in his eye.

"Ra...ramen?" Sasuke made a sound that almost resembled a laugh.

Naruto frowned, "What's funny?" But Sasuke only smirked and picked up the kettle that sat beside the fire. After filling the cup to the designated line and closing the paper lid, he held the instant ramen out to the bunshin. "Really? I can have it?" asked Naruto.

"Hn." He snatched the ramen out of the other boy's hands.

"Thanks 'Suke!" Sasuke's eyes widened almost imperceptibly. _"Suke huh?" _

When three minutes had passed and the ramen was ready and Naruto had begun to indulge in the noodley goodness, Sasuke repeated his earlier question. "Why is a bunshin here? Where's the dobe?" The blonde shrugged, slurping up a noodle.

"The real me is at home I suppose. We've still got to do our missions, and since we're jounin now we have a lot to do. And Tsunade keeps us purposely busy." He paused to take another bite. "So the real me has been sending us bunshin out every day to look for you." Naruto grabbed another bite of ramen with his chopsticks, "Ne, Sasuke, this is really good ramen! Especially for instant!"

Looking back into the fire, Sasuke replied, "It's supposedly the best there is." The blonde boy readied another bite but stopped with his arm half way to his mouth. A curious look stole over the boy's whiskered face. He glanced around the cave. He estimated it to be rough 20 feet wide and about 15 feet deep, but it showed no signs of continuous use. Sure Sasuke had made camp, but nothing that resembled a long term setup. It seemed Sasuke, too, was just seeking refuge from the rain. He looked down at the steaming cup in front of him.

"Sasuke? Don't you hate ramen?" He glanced around the cave again. "Doesn't look like you're staying here. Why are you carrying ramen around with you? Ne, ne? Did you decide you like it?" Naruto teased, a triumphant grin playing across his face. "I told you that you would learn to love it! You like sweets now too?" Sasuke glanced at the bunshin sitting across from him for a quick moment, and then returned his gaze to the flames.

"No."

"No? No what? No you don't like sweets or no, you don't like ramen?"

The raven haired boy sighed, and lay on his back, hands behind his head. For a moment he didn't say anything, then with another sigh he shifted to his side and propped his head up with his palm, his shirt opening widening, revealing a sculpted ivory torso. He stared at the replica in front of him. A small blush crept into Naruto's face as a tingling sensation stole over his body and he averted his gaze. When Sasuke still didn't say anything a few moments later, he looked back at him and was caught by his dark eyes.

"Neither." When Naruto still looked as though he didn't understand, Sasuke added, "I still don't like either of them."

"Then why did you have ramen? There are plenty of other easy portable meals for you to carry, ne?" Sasuke stared back into the flickering flames before him.

"I always have some, but I don't eat it. But that's not important. Like I said, I'm not going back with some bunshin." Naruto gulped down his last bite of ramen, and set the cup aside. Grabbing his knees up to his chest, he stared at Sasuke.

"Would you come back though? If you were with the real me?" asked the bunshin, anxiety evident in his voice. Sasuke returned to his back, one hand behind his head, the other resting on his stomach.

"Go back huh?" He asked to no one in particular, staring into the dark space above him. "Go back to the village? Back to Konoha? I'm a missing nin. Back to the whispers and the scandal?" He sighed.

"No," said Naruto, a tear falling down one whiskered cheek, "back to me, back to Naruto." He got up and moved to Sasuke's side of the fire. Getting down on all fours beside the sprawled out boy, he leaned over and looked him in the eye. "Come home Sasuke. I miss you." Another tear began to fall as Naruto, almost subconsciously, reached to hold the pale face before him in his hands. "It doesn't matter if you're a missing nin; I've already taken care of that. I miss you. I miss my best friend. I miss my rival. I miss... I miss..."

The bunshin wiped the blurring tears from his eyes, only to be surprised to see the same tears in the dark orbs that lay below him. The two boys stay staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity to Naruto. He vaguely noticed that the rain had stopped outside, and the moonlight was beginning to peek through the drained rain clouds.

"Tell him..." Sasuke began after a time, "tell him... tell him... Wait, how many bunshin does he have out?"

"There are at least fifty of us out at all times..." The blonde replied, unsure of what Sasuke was thinking.

"Tell him to meet me at the bridge that spans the koi pond near the village in two days, at noon. Tell him to extinguish his bunshin and rest up. Constantly using that many bunshin on top of what he's got to do in his missions, for that long? He is going to make himself sick." Sasuke looked away, a reddening blush kissing his cheeks. Naruto grinned,

"Are you worried about me 'Suke?"

"Hn."

And in a flash Sasuke grabbed a kunai from within the folds of his clothes, wrapped one arm around the bunshin's neck and plunged the kunai into his arm with the other, and in a puff of smoke his old friend's jutsu was gone. He laid his hands on his chest and closed his eyes. He couldn't keep a faint smile from touching the corners of his mouth as he rolled over and went to sleep.

* * *

Naruto awoke just as the sun was setting. He lay in his bed, eyes still closed, not really wanting to get up yet. That was, until, the resident mouse chaser flopped down on his face.

"Oi, Teme! My face is not a place to take a nap!" He told the cat, as he set up, and held it out in front of him. Hanging like a rag doll, Teme was totally unconcerned.

"Nyaa." And as he had done earlier that morning, and like countless times before, Teme gently bit Naruto's finger.

"Yeah, yeah. Bite, bite." The sleepy eyed blonde snickered at the cat. Putting Teme down on the floor at his feet, Naruto stretched his arms out as a yawn escaped him.

He rose from his bed while running his hand through his hair and made his way to the bathroom. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he noticed the dark rings under his eyes had faded somewhat, thanks to sleeping the day away. Naruto made his way to the tub and started running water for a bath. After making sure the water temperature was just right, he undressed and stepped in. Sinking into the water up to his chin, he let out a long, deep sigh. The hot water was heavenly, and soon Naruto was lost in his thoughts.

_"Sasuke... Dammit Sasuke, where are you? Why haven't you come home? I know the old, happy Sasuke was the right one... why don't you want happiness, Sasuke?" _Naruto closed his eyes and smiled. _"Hn. The good old days... ever since the day I first saw you, sitting on your family's dock... I knew... even if I wasn't really aware that I knew..." _He sat up. "Heh, does that even make sense?" Naruto chuckled to himself. Matters concerning Sasuke never made much sense to Naruto. He pulled the plug out of the drain, and turned the water on again to shower off.

The Blonde turned on the radio that sat on the counter near the tub. A familiar song was playing and he hummed along as he lathered his hair. As the chorus broke out, he turned to rinse the suds out of his hair, shaking his hips in time with the beat as he sang along. "Yooooou, are my Angel, Angel. Seeeeeent tooo meeeeee... Yoooou are my Angle, Ang..." Naruto's face suddenly went pale, his head was swimming. Images swarmed before his eyes.

"Sasuke...?" It was barely more than a whisper. As he accumulated the information from the bunshin that had just been extinguished, Naruto's head erupted in a torrent of chaos.

"I found Sasuke! I really found him! And he said to meet him!"

Naruto sprang out of the shower, hurryingly turning off the faucet. Without drying himself, and without worrying about his clothes he ran out of the bathroom, tripping over the radio power cord, pulling it from the wall in his hurry. Naruto ran into his living room, leaped on his couch, "Sasuke!" and started jumping up and down. "I'm going to bring him back!" He ran into the kitchen. "Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!" The overjoyed blonde sang aloud to himself.

*Knock. Knock.*

Naruto's heart jumped into his throat as he started running for the door. He almost ripped the knob off as he threw it open.

"Naruto-kun! We just got back from the mission and Sakura suggested I... I check..." It was Sai. The normally impassive boy's face was covered in a furious blush. Sakura had asked him to check on Naruto, since he hadn't been allowed to go on the mission, while she went and made their report to Tsunade. He, however, was not expecting a fully nude, dripping wet, Naruto to answer the door. And what was with that grin plastered from ear to ear?

"Yo! Sai!" Naruto greeted him. "Are you ok? You look like you have a fever..." Naruto grabbed Sai's left arm and pulled him in the door while simultaneously putting his other hand on the other boys now crimson face. "You feel a little warm."

"Um...Naruto?" Sai inquired.

"What's up? Is everything ok?"

"Um... Naruto, why are you naked?" A shade of red never before though possible covered the youth's cheeks.

"Huh?" Asked Naruto looking down. "OH! Shit! I'm sorry I forgot... I got distracted you see and... well I was in the bath and... never mind... hahahaha... Give me just a minute, I'll go get dressed." And the blonde promptly turned around and quickly headed for his bedroom, his face now matching the color of Sai's. Sai, recovering quickly from his near nosebleed, closed the door behind him and stood waiting for Naruto to return.

"Really, Sai, I'm sorry man." Giggled Naruto as he emerged from his bedroom door, now fully clothed.

"No, it's ok. It's not like I haven't seen you naked before." Sai said quietly. Naruto gave him a quizzical look. "Ah, that is... the hot springs." Naruto laughed a little, scratching behind his head.

"Anyways, come have a seat man, you don't have to wait for an invitation around here you know." Sai mumbled a faint "Un." and sat down on the couch.

Sai looked at Naruto. "Ne, Naruto? Did something good happen?" The blonde raised his eyebrows a little, his blue eyes positively sparkling.

"Why do you say that?"

"Huh? Well, you see... I was reading in this book and... I know you guys told me not to really... but..."

Naruto waved a hand at him, "Ok, Ok. Never mind. Yeah..." The unabashed smile, having never left his face all this time, now grew even larger as he sat down in an armchair across from his friend. "Something GREAT happened." Now it was Sai's eyebrows that rose.

"Great huh? You've been pretty moody lately, I'm glad something has cheered you up." Naruto, bursting to tell someone, anyone, that he had finally done it, started squirming in his seat. Sai laughed, "That big huh? What is it then?" Naruto began fussing about in the recliner even more, but said nothing. "Ah I've got to guess do I? Hmmm..." Sai looked down putting his chin in his palm. "Did you eat some really good ramen? No, no. You're really antsy, it's bigger than ramen. Did you get laid then?" Sai looked up at Naruto for a moment, and then returned his gaze to the floor. "No, no. It's not that either. You're practically freaking out over there..."

Again, he returned his gaze to the blonde boy who was now jumping up and down like a frog, shaking the frame of the chair, eyes a little bit wild. Then it hit him. "Oh. Sasuke." Came Sai's monotonous tone as he slumped into the couch behind him. Naruto froze.

"Oh. Sasuke? Is that all you can fucking say? I wouldn't have made you guess if I thought that's what you were going to say. What a buzz-kill." He pointed at the boy sitting on his couch. "You, my friend, you suck." Naruto laughed as he rose from his chair. "Come on, I'll make some tea and ramen"

After the boys had eaten and the tea was served, Sai rekindled their conversation. "So what's the deal? Where's Sasuke?" Naruto put the tea cup he had been drinking from down in its matching saucer.

"Ok well first... you see..."

*Knock. Knock.*

"Ah, that'll be Sakura I'm sure." Naruto said, rising from his seat. "I bet she'll have a better response than you, fucker!"

"Hn." Came Sai's reply as he threw a left over ramen noodle at Naruto. Naruto caught the noodle in his mouth and put his hand up, fingers in the "V for Victory" sign.

*Knock. Knock.*

"Yeah, Yeah! I'm coming!" He yelled. Naruto opened the door. It was Sakura all right, and as soon as he had opened the door she was staring him down, looking for signs of the earlier fatigue. She could still see it around his eyes, but there was something different. His eyes were really sparkly, abnormally sparkly, and then in an instant, so were Sakura's.

"Holy fucking shit! You found him?" She yelled as she shoved her way through the doorway.

"SEE? I told you! That was a much better reaction!" Naruto laughed closing his front door, "And I didn't even say anything!"

"Pfft! That's just that old Sasuke-radar of Sakura's that I've heard so much about kicking in. And such dirty language from a lady." Sai smirked at Sakura as she sat down at the table pouring herself some tea.

"You like it and you know it, Sai." She winked at him.

"So where'd your bunshin find him at Naruto? Where is he now? Is he coming home? What did he say? What happened?" The questions spilled out of the girl's mouth before Naruto had even sat down. "Well my bunshin was about 2 days from here and it was raining and I... I... hang on! You knew about my bunshin?" Naruto's face showed evident surprise.

"We aren't idiots Naruto; why else would you be so tired all the time?" Came Sai's matter-of-fact reply.

"Then why didn't you say something?"

"Would it have mattered Naruto? Who cares about that now anyways, tell us what happened!" Sakura all but shrieked at him. Naruto laughed.

"All right. Well like I was saying, it started raining, and my bunshin slipped..."

* * *

"So... the day after tomorrow... wow." Sakura said as she set back in her chair. "What're you going to do?"

"Do? Well I'm going to go obviously!"

"I don't think that's what Sakura meant, Naruto." Naruto looked from Sakura to Sai, then back to Sakura.

"Well... what I meant was, what are you going to do when you meet him, when you see him?" She was using a voice usually reserved only for when explaining seemingly simple things to small children.

"Ah well that... I'm not really sure. I mean this all just happened tonight. I've run through this scenario a million times but really I suppose most of it will be up to Sasuke, ne? But it sounded like he was willing to come home to me." The blonde shrugged his shoulders.

"Well we'll just have to wait and see, I suppose. In the mean time," Sakura was saying as she reached into a pocket, "drink this, and then dispel your bunshin. With so many out, that's going to wipe you, that medicine should help." She handed Naruto a crystal vial with a strange violet colored liquid inside as she rose from the table. "Sai and I should be heading home and you're going to need your rest. We'll come by tomorrow evening." Naruto walked his two friends to the door.

"Oh and I would appreciate it if you guys wouldn't say anything to anyone for a while. If he comes home, I want to give him some time to adjust before everyone assaults him. I mean, you guys are ok... but everyone else..."

"No worries Naruto. " Sai smiled, "Our lips are sealed. " Halfway across the threshold, Sakura turned on her heal and faced Naruto looking him straight in the eye.

"I knew you could do it, Naruto." She smiled, kissed Naruto on his surprised cheek, then grabbing Sai by the hand they waved and started their way home.

* * *

The last couple of days had been torture for Naruto. Every waking moment his mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Sasuke, though really that wasn't all that much different from any other day. No, it had simply been the waiting, waiting knowing that he was so close to completing one of his 2 major goals in life, and he knew the second would follow shortly after the first. He had been chasing after the Uchiha avenger for over 7 years now, but the last 2 days had been filled with more angst than all the years of his life put together, and that was saying something. It's not that Uzumaki Naruto was an angsty type of person, but let's face it; anyone who knew him could attest to the fact that the boy had been subjected to more than his fair share of scorn and heartache.

"I'm just no good with suspense..." The blonde muttered to himself as he finally neared his destination. The koi pond Sasuke had spoken of was in sight now, and he could feel his pulse quicken. A few hurried steps later Naruto could see a darkened silhouette leaning against the railing of the bridge and a soft melody floated through the air accompanied by soft humming. The kyuubi container stopped just short of the bridge, all sense of urgency washed away with the music produced by the Uchiha heir. It was beautiful, haunting, and somehow made him feel better than he had in years.

As the song drew to a close and as Sasuke sealed the strange foreign instrument back into the scroll at his feet, Naruto made his way to the raven's side and unconsciously held his breath. For a few moments the world stood still. The wind died down, the forest was silent, even the fish stopped jumping. Then Sasuke stood and looked at Naruto. Neither of them moved or said a word for what seemed like eons, simply content to stare at one another. Then as suddenly just as quickly as it had disappeared, life and sound came blasting back. It was almost too much for Naruto, who had forgotten anything else had existed at all, and though childish it may seem, he almost felt cheated. As if the world should disappear for a while, leaving only Sasuke and him. Banishing those selfish thoughts from his mind, he released his breath, having finally realized that he was holding it and the dizziness he felt was not only because Sasuke was in front of him again at last.

Silence had never been something that Naruto indulged in. He was a loud, obnoxious, hyper-active type of person, even now that he was 20 years old. Now, however, he was content to revel in the peace that seemed to linger in the air. Just what was it about Sasuke that drew Naruto to him like he did? They had started out as reluctant teammates, never really getting along, always fighting and bickering amongst each other and somewhere along the way they grew to be closer to each other than anyone else. _'Even if that teme will never admit it.' _Naruto thought, mentally rolling his eyes. But when had their rivalry and friendship turned into a desperate obsession for the blonde? When had Uchiha Sasuke become the most important being in his world? Was it after he had nearly died saving Naruto? Before that, when they had been assigned teammates? When they had been each others unwilling first kiss? Before all that? Naruto didn't know, and really he didn't care. He just knew that at some point Sasuke became all that mattered, even more so than becoming Hokage.

_'Kami, I sound like one of his old fangirls!' _He berated himself. And with that thought, the silence was broken and Naruto's harmonic laughter rang out. _'Right, all this must be going to my head. As if any of those girls would do, or have done, half of what I have for this bastard. And that includes Sakura, even if she's moved onto Sai. But what in the hell does that mean? The fact that I am willing to go above and beyond for this self-righteous prick, willing to risk everything I have and everything I am for him...'  
_  
Naruto's inner dialog was interrupted without conclusion though by the rising of a perfectly curved eyebrow, a smirk, and a one syllable word that once upon a time he never wanted to hear again.

"Hn."

Trying to calm his chuckling, Naruto took deep breaths and prepared himself for what he hoped to be the last time he had to make his aptly named, 'Come home or I beat the shit out of you!' speech. Though he was by no means the genius that Sasuke was, Naruto had learned a thing or two over the years and his speech had evolved along with him. He knew now, that the raven was not one for obeying requests or demands. He was the type you had to have a solid plan, catch him off guard, then go in with fists swinging and force the bastard to see reason. Thus the reason for his previous angsting. What would he say, could he say, this time to make the last Uchiha see where he belonged. After hours and hours of inner turmoil, Naruto, with some help from Kiba, thought of a tactic that he had never used before. Something he was sure no one had tried before, and it was a far cry from his usual speech, if you could call it a speech at all anymore. The way he figured he had a 50/50 chance of either getting back his most precious friend, or being run through several times with a Chidori charged blade. Naruto was, if nothing else though, an optimist and percentages never mattered much to him. Steeling his nerves, composing his face, Naruto took the plunge.

"Well Teme, here I am. What are your other 2 wishes?"

"Uh... what?" The raven asked, his left eyebrow joining the right, arching up into perfection.

"I'm a Love Pirate, and I'm here for your booty! ARGH!" Obsidian eyes widened almost comically and Naruto had to use every ounce of self restraint he possessed not to start laughing out loud. Before Sasuke could reply, he shot out another one liner.

"Is that a keg in your pants? Because I'd love to tap that ass." The Uchiha lost all composure, his jaw dropped, his eyes bugged out of his head. He couldn't be hearing the dobe right. Naruto could read the doubt in the raven's eyes and decided to seal the deal.

"Ne, Sasuke, nice shoes, wanna fuck?" Cerulean eyes were alight with laughter that the blonde didn't dare to let out yet. Yup, this was the fantastical plan that he and Kiba had come up with. What better way to shock the Uchiha? No one would expect this! It was genius!

Sasuke just stood there, gaping like a fish. He was unsure of what the dobe was playing at. Was he for real? Was he just messing with him? Who in the hell comes up to someone they haven't seen in over 2 years, and spouts off this shit? It was then that he really looked into Naruto's eyes. _'Che, that little shit! Two can play at this game.' _Features once again schooled into his impassive mask, Sasuke decided to join in on this little farce.

"Tsk, usuratonkachi. Those are horrible. Though, you know, my love for you is like diarrhea... I can't hold it in." That was it. Naruto couldn't hold it anymore after that and burst out laughing, the sound ringing throughout the glade. The Uchiha wasn't far behind him, much to the blonde's surprise. He had only heard Sasuke laugh once before and it was just as amazing now as it was then. The two boys laughed until they lost their breath and were clutching their sides. It felt good to Sasuke, like something had been lifted, like the tension was gone. He was with his best friend again, joking, laughing, and he felt something he hadn't in a long time. Happiness.

A small smile still playing on his lips, Sasuke picked himself up off the ground. After helping the still laughing Naruto to his feet, he uttered the words that the kyuubi holder had waited forever to hear.

"Come on Dobe, let's go home."

* * *

The reunited friends had been making their way towards the Konoha gates in silence, when a thought occurred to Sasuke. Hadn't this been a little, well, uncomplicated? Wasn't there supposed to be more yelling? At the very least the Uchiha had expected Naruto to yell at him at least once, if not just to ask the ever irritating, 'Why?' Shouldn't the dobe want to talk about the why's and the future? Speaking of the future, what in the hell had he just agreed to really? He was classified as a missing-nin, but Naruto had said it was taken care of. What did that mean? What in the hell did that entail exactly? After leading a life with complication after complication, this all seemed too... simple. His thoughts were cut off though as they finally made it to the gates. They were just as he had remembered, though riddled with new scars of recent destruction. The normal lookouts usually stationed there were not present, instead only a single dark silhouette perched under the shade of the check-in booth was visible. As the silhouetted figure noticed their presence, it rose and made its way towards them.

"Naruto-sama," Kakashi greeted with a small bow, "the Hokage is waiting for you. She requests you see her immediately." He was then gone with a small 'pop' and a swirl of leaves, without looking at Sasuke, or acknowledging him at all. Sasuke then noticed the village, or what he could see of it. Nothing was as it was before he had left. Everything looked pristine; nothing seemed to be run down. As they made their way to the apparently new Hokage Tower, he also noticed everyone giving Naruto small bows, not that he acknowledged them. Even the non-shinobi population was pausing in their work to greet Naruto. The regular citizens had, in the past, simply ignored their ninja caretakers, and especially Naruto. If they did pay him any mind it was usually only to curse him under their breaths or to throw whatever was available at him. What in the hell...?

"Usuratonkachi. First Kakashi acts like he's lost it, then everything looks different, and everyone is bowing... am I missing something?" Sasuke couldn't take it anymore; he stopped in his tracks, refusing to go on until the blonde answered his questions. He hated having to ask, but he hated not knowing what was going on more so. It was like he had stepped into a twisted genjutsu, one impervious to his Mangekyo, where Naruto was coveted like he was the Hokage and Sasuke acted like it was normal for him to admit that he didn't know something. Had Kakashi not said that the Hokage wanted to see them, he would almost assume that to be the case.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, I tend to forget all about it." Naruto shrugged his shoulders, a hand coming back to scratch at the back of his neck. "Pein destroyed pretty much everything when he attacked, you know? It took a while, but almost everything has been rebuilt now."

"And everyone's bowing because you beat Pein?" Sasuke asked as he caught up with Naruto who had started walking again. "I guess that makes sense, but Kakashi?"

Naruto simply dismissed Sasuke's questions with a wave of his hand. "Who knows why that not-so-closet pervert does anything? I think he's probably just mocking me. Come on, we're here. Baa-Chan is impatient, and I don't want to get my ass kicked because you're a bit out of the loop. Though I'll admit, I'm surprised you're talking so much, used to be all grunts and smirks with you. I'll answer whatever you want later. Besides, I want to ask you a few questions of my own, you know?" The blonde shot a grin at the disappointed Uchiha and raised his fist to knock on the Hokage's door.

"I know you're out there! Get in here Gaki!"

Naruto let out a sigh, "Right, here we go." And he opened the door.

The two young men walked into Tsunade's office, Sasuke taking his lead from the dobe and remaining silent as they stood in front of her desk. Sasuke let out an almost unnoticeable sigh. He was acting a bit unlike himself. He couldn't help it though. Naruto sparked his inner curiosity and he had always had a problem ignoring the blonde. He always had to react, even if whatever he spouted off was nonsense, he always had to respond. Now, however, was not the time to be misplacing his Uchiha-ness. Where had his stoic self gone? The last place he remembered having it was at the bridge earlier... it couldn't have been buried too deep in such a short amount of time. After doing a quick internal inventory, he was finally able to pull himself together, get back a bit of the ice prick persona he was known for. Tsunade eyed the both of them for a few minutes, doing a quick assessment in her head.

"Why aren't you bleeding? You didn't fight? I think I'm kind of impressed if that's the case. So? What happened?" She asked looking towards Naruto.

"Uh... well about that... I sort of... hit on him...?" Naruto's cheeks were dusted a bright pink, embarrassment causing his statement to sound more like a question.

"So you did fight. Well obviously not too roughly. It's better than what I-"

Naruto cleared his throat, "Uh, no. What I mean is I hit on him."

Tsunade's eyes turned towards the Uchiha. "You speak idiot right? Explain."

Sasuke could see it was his turn to speak, but what in the hell was he supposed to say. He hadn't even sorted it all out in his head; it really didn't go like he had thought it would. The raven shrugged mentally, the truth it is then. "Hn. Basically the dobe came up to me and asked if I'd like to fuck him." He deadpanned with a roll of his eyes. Apparently the stoic attitude was fleeting, at best, when it came to matters concerning Naruto. Great...

The sake that Tsunade had been drinking came exploding out of her mouth. "Sasuke! What he means, Baa-Chan, is that I came up with a new persuasion. Er! That is, every other time I went to get him back, it never worked. So Kiba and I thought up a different strategy. I was just trying to shock him, maybe get him off guard. Then I was going to knock him out and drag him home. But it didn't really come to that." Sasuke eyed the blonde next to him, an almost incredulous look on his face.

"What?" Naruto asked innocently. Tsunade stared at the both of them; a strange looked played across her face. She stood suddenly, placing both of her hands on the desk in front of her.

"I'm not sure I really care to know what happens in your sex life, Uzumaki-"

"I don't have a sex life!"

"-in any case we have other things to discuss, Naruto you are dismissed. Uchiha." She looked him over as a beet red Naruto closed the door behind him, having only just then realized what he had shouted. "Since you apparently did not sustain any injuries, we need to review your situation." Tsunade began, "As of 17 months ago, you were no longer listed as a missing-nin. Being as such, you will be given a test in 2 weeks to determine your rank. Regardless of what rank you receive, after your testing you will only be sent on rank C and D missions for a month."

"Hn." Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. _'Ahh there you are my apathetic side...' _Really he thought that this was going to be a lot worse than it was. It was like he never left. What had the dobe done?

"There's also the matter of your property." The Hokage continued, "When Pein attacked, most of Konoha was destroyed. This included the Uchiha compound. As many items were salvaged as possible and placed in a vault. The outer wall was rebuilt. The rest is bare, save for the caretakers plot and a few maintenance buildings." She had returned to her chair while speaking and was now gauging the Uchiha's reaction.

Sasuke, however, wasn't sure how he felt about it exactly. He had come to some realizations concerning his family. He couldn't say for a lot of previous generations, but to him his family wasn't really all that great. The fact that his childhood home, which still had some good memories left in it, was gone pulled at a heartstring. But, even so, he couldn't say that he was really upset.

"Caretaker?" The raven inquired. "Who's this caretaker? And why does an empty plot need someone too look over it?"

Tsunade shrugged her shoulders. "Naruto. He took it upon himself to do all of this for you. Except for your testing and mission ranks, he had a hand in all of your affairs. As to why he's looking over your land, you'd have to ask him, though if I remember right he said something about rocky spoil... or maybe soil rocks..." Tsunade rolled her eyes. As if anyone could remember all the mindless drivel that spews out of that boy's mouth. "No one except Naruto can access the vault; I don't even know where he's hidden it. The maintenance buildings are really more random storage than anything else so there's not really anything there to steal, other than the things at Naruto's apartment. Well it's more of a small house than apartment, but that's what he calls it. I think its habit." Looking the last Uchiha straight in the eyes, the Hokage started to emit a slightly murderous aura. "You should count yourself lucky Uchiha, that he's done all that he has for you. If he hadn't, you'd be dead, your property sold off, and everything you threw away, once upon a time, would have been lost for good."

_'I get it, he's Mr. Fan-fucking-tastic! I'll be sure to grovel at his feet at the next available opportunity.' _Sasuke mentally rolled his eyes. "So if my house is gone, where am I supposed to stay, with Naruto?"

"Yes, until Yamato comes back. He will reconstruct your house, should you find the blueprints. If you cannot you may simply design a house for him to build. He should be returning within the month. That's all, you are dismissed. I will summon you when the time for your testing draws near." Again, the Hokage rose to her feet. "And Uchiha, don't fuck this up. You are to be on your best behavior. It's not just about you anymore; Naruto has taken a lot on himself for you. Should you fail to meet our expectations, it's Naruto who stands to loose the most." With that, she turned her back on the Uchiha as he made to leave her office. Before he could leave, she uttered a final wish under her breath. "I hope you were worth it, Uchiha."

* * *

The inky darkness of night had descended upon the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The denizens of the village had, for the most part, gone to their various homes. As a cooling wind assuaged the balmy night, two shinobi made their way towards a place that was once filled with more ghosts than people. The short walk was engulfed in an estranged silence. The silence shattered, however, as the younger of the two stopped walking and began to speak, nervousness and anticipation playing through his cobalt eyes.

"Ne, Sasuke, I know baa-Chan told you about your house but there are probably a few things I should tell you too." Naruto was tense as Sasuke came to a stop in front of him. In the past, the Uchiha had been very particular about his house, its ghosts, and his possessions. The Uzumaki just prayed that he wouldn't get too upset with the way he had managed his belongings. "I know, or knew anyway, how much you hated people when people disturbed your things. I, uh, tried to be as respectful as I could." They had started walking again as Naruto had spoken.

As they came up to the new gate of the compound, Sasuke had to admit it was well done. The Uchiha fan was placed in the center of the double sided gate. As the gate would swing open, the fan would be split into two equal pieces down the center. The whole thing was carved out of a beautiful piece of cherry wood. Around the engraved fan, intricate swirls of fire traced flowing patterns that seemed to move as one watched them, engulfing the rather large doors. If one stared long enough, they could recognize the flames had formed 3 tomoe like shapes, centered around the fan. The Uchiha was honestly impressed. It just screamed Uchiha; elegant and intricate, yet harsh and powerful.

"I like it." Sasuke declared, still staring at the gate.

"R-really? Uh, I'm glad. It took forever to make. I didn't know if..." the blonde was lightly blushing by the end.

"Did Yamato do this?"

"U-uh, no. I did. Yamato did the wall though. He made it one continuous piece of wood." Naruto began feeding his chakra into two of the tomoe hidden in the flames. "I need you to feed chakra into the third tomoe, Sasuke."

One fine eyebrow was arched, "What are you doing?"

"I'm making it so the gate recognizes you and will let you in, teme. If I don't do this, the gate won't open for you. I used an old seal I found in Baa-Chan's office. Just do it, my fingers are getting hot!"

"Hn." Sasuke stepped up to the remaining tomoe, gathering chakra in his hand. If he had thought the flames had looked alive before, it was nothing compared to this. As he pressed his had to the gate, it vibrated and the flames were literally moving across its expanse. A moment later, it had stopped. "Hn."

"Since you're an Uchiha, it will do that every time you open it from now on. Just gather chakra into your hand and place it on the fan and it'll open. No one can open it unless they've been given 'permission'. Baa-Chan, Kakashi, Sakura, Sai, me, and now you are the only ones that can open it." Naruto once again placed his chakra infused hands on the gate, though this time in the center of the Uchiha crest adorning its surface. As he pushed, and the gate swung open on silent hinges, the blonde gave a small smile and met Sasuke's eyes.

"Okairi, Teme."

A small sigh escaped the last of the Uchiha, accompanied by a small upturn of his lips, "Tadaima."

His eyes left the blondes. The happiness he saw there was too much and he was undeserving. His eyes traveled the flat expanse of what was once his home. Since it was dark, there wasn't too much he could make out, that was, until Naruto flipped a switch to his right. Lights immediately illuminated on the wall, spaced three feet apart and circling the entire plot. There were also lights following a small stone path leading off towards the corner to his left, disappearing into trees he didn't remember being there before. The light didn't brighten everything, but it was enough that he could see quite a bit of his property. Where there were once shops and houses there was now a few scattering wild flowers. Where there were bloodied streets there was now rolling grass. When he had come home in the past it had felt as though death was everywhere, now there was only a feeling of nostalgia and calmness.

"A-are you ok? I mean, is it ok?" Naruto asked from behind the raven, nervously scratching the back of his neck, internally cursing himself for stuttering so much in the last 10 minutes. To top it off, he was sure that it would be an occurring thing throughout the night.

"Ah. The house is that way then?" Sasuke asked, pointing towards the path.

"Yeah, uh, before we go, I want to talk to you a bit."

"Hn."

Naruto rolled his eyes. You'd think the Uchiha would react more than this. "Right, well. Baa-Chan probably told you I'm the caretaker. After everything was destroyed, the council wanted to seize your property. I pretty much told them to get bent and I appointed myself guardian of your estate. I had Yamato build the wall and a gate."

"I thought you made the gate?"

"That was later." The Uzumaki replied with a wave of his hand. "I... I really didn't know what to do. There was debris everywhere and it was your clan's belongings, you know? I wasn't sure if it would be appropriate for me to move anything or... Eventually, I decided that the Uchiha's were too proud to have their home in rubble, so I decided to clean everything up." He looked up and met Sasuke's eyes, trying to gauge his reaction so far. Family was often a touchy subject with the raven. He didn't seem to be upset though, and even gave a small nod to Naruto, a signal for him to continue.

"Right. So I started cleaning up, but I was faced with a dilemma. What to do with all of this stuff? I mean sure it was just timbers and whatnot with a few objects scattered in between. But still, it was your house, your clan's homes, you know? It might be kind of silly, but I didn't just want to throw it all out. I mean that just seemed...wrong. I had Yamato build a couple of buildings for me and I put all of the debris in there, except the more valuable stuff."

Sasuke noted that Naruto was rather nervous. He didn't see why. He could tell that the dobe had kept him and his family in mind when dealing with his home. He had shown more care towards the place than even Sasuke himself had. Still though, the dobe had kept the wood? The raven rolled his eyes.

"While I appreciate you doing all of that, you didn't need to keep the wood and such, Dobe."

"Don't dobe me! Do you know how crazy you get when it comes to your family? And here I was traipsing through all of your past. How the hell was I supposed to know? If I hadn't done it, you'd be standing here now screaming at me, 'Dobe, how could you throw my house away! I wanted that wood! I was going to use that stuff to build my house, have pieces of my family ingrained in the woodwork!' Right, yeah like I was going to toss anything out. Bastard." Naruto ended in a huff, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Dobe, I do not sound like that. And furthermore I would have said no such thing. Though now that you mention it, I rather like that idea. Is that all? I'd like to get to the house and clean up, relax, then go to bed."

"R-right the house. I-I kind of did more over-"

"Naruto. You don't have to explain what you've done. I'm sure everything is fine. I get that, in the past, I was a bit... aggressive, when it came to my family and my home. We can talk about 'feelings' later." Sasuke internally rolled his eyes. He should have known the conversation would come up. "Honestly though, it's fine. I'm fine, everything is fine." The last Uchiha let a smirk grace his face and started down the illuminated path, Naruto grumbling behind him as he followed.

When they came through the small woodland area, Sasuke's steps faltered. He stopped and took everything in. Where the rest of his property had been vacant, this area was brimming with signs of use and life. Naruto had used the chibi-forest as a barrier of sorts. The whole area looked like a Japanese garden. The path led to a bridge covered pond and continued up towards a small house. Various plant life could be seen, along with a Zen garden. The raven could hear the 'clunk-clunk' of the bamboo deer-chaser somewhere near by accompanied by a chorus of frog song. As they began moving again, crossing the bridge, Naruto again broke the silence.

"R-right, so... there's ah... t-there's the frog pond, and of course the house. Off towards the right there's a training area, and behind the house is a garden and the onsen." They had reached the door now, and as Naruto unlocked it, he felt the raven come up behind him. The Uchiha reached around the blonde, opening the door, and let himself in. He removed his sandals, deciding to give himself a tour. The place gave off a feeling of home immediately and he began his investigation. Naruto suddenly felt a great weight being lifted off of his shoulders. Sasuke was here, really here, in his house. He was home and wasn't pissed off with all that Naruto had done. A grin no one could hope to dull or contain spread across his feet and he went to find Sasuke.

Sasuke was observing the kitchen when Naruto found him. He had seen the cozy living room, done in a dark blues and grays. A large, dark grey couch, a matching chair, end tables and a coffee table made of a dark wood he didn't recognize, and a large entertainment center had filled the space. A large painting of old Konoha had adorned one wall. He had seen the bathroom done in forest greens, rather impressed with its size. The kitchen was apparently fully stocked, and with food other than instant ramen. The light blue decor lent a feeling of peace to the raven and he could have called the house heaven when he found a bowl full of ripe tomatoes on the white table, surrounded by four chairs. Picking one up and bringing it to the sink to rinse it off, a thought occurred to Sasuke.

"Where are the bedrooms?" Sasuke asked before taking a bite out of his now clean tomato. He had noticed only one other room and it was defiantly not a bedroom. In fact it was full of stands and shelves and even more plants. Below the large, drapeless, window stood a comfortable looking bench, a watering can beside it. Smudges of dirt and varying leaf matter scattered were here and there on the stone floor. It had smelled of earth and a pleasing combination of the varying flowers.

The smile that had found Naruto at the door was still going strong. As he began to make them tea, he looked up at Sasuke, noticing he had already snagged himself a tomato and snickered to himself. "The house was built according to the only blueprint I found in the rubble. I wanted it to be original, you know? It was too small though for what I needed, but rather than add on or change the outward appearance in any way, I just put the bedrooms downstairs. You can have your pick. The house is yours technically after all. I would like to keep my room, but if you want it, I don't mind. The back of the house is dug out so each room has a couple of windows and a door opening into the garden."

"I'm not taking your room Dobe. I just want a place to sleep. And this house is yours. It's apparent that you've done a lot around here and out of everyone else, I'd rather it be you that's living in the compound." With a wave of his hand Sasuke walked off down the hallway. "I'm going to pick a room, borrow some clothes for bed, eat some dinner, and then get in the onsen."

While Naruto began preparing their dinner, Sasuke had arrived in the basement. There was a hallway at the bottom of the stairs, three doors on the left side. He stopped at the first room, opened the door and noticed it was unpainted, undecorated, and unused. He ventured on to the second door, and saw it was the same as the first. Deciding that this room would be fine, as the last one was bound to be Naruto's, he dumped his bag on the floor and ventured to the final room. As he stood outside the door, hand on the knob, he prepared himself to be assaulted by orange. He could picture the walls painted a bright orange, with brighter orange accents all over the room. His retinas wouldn't survive, he was positive. He opened the door and found himself to be pleasantly surprised. The ratio of orange to any other color was quite small. Naruto's bed was placed center on the far wall, opposite the windows and door to the backyard, and covered in rich navy blue silk, and burnt orange pillows. On either side of the bed there were two ebony end tables, one supporting a lamp. The other held an old photo of Team 7, Sasuke's old headband dangling off one side of the frame.

Sasuke sat staring at the dobe's bed. His brain had shut down and he couldn't fathom why._ 'It's just his bed.' _He thought to himself, his eyes flicking back and forth, from the picture on the nightstand, to the bed, and then back again _'It's just his bed... Just because I... He might not even... And I still have to tell him... Tonight... I'll tell him about it tonight.' _The Uchiha let out a sigh, nodding to himself. He was suddenly a bit nervous and had a light dusting of pink across his cheeks. Prying his eyes away, he noticed the rest of the room. The walls were a navy blue as well, with a large orange swirl painted above the boy's dresser and his cluttered desk. Opposite the swirl were a few tall bookcases overflowing with books and scrolls. _'That's way more books than I thought the dobe would ever own.' _Sasuke walked towards the dresser, intent on finding something suitable to sleep in when something caught his eye. One of the windows was open and a black cat sat peering at him, curious as to why this stranger was in that nice man's room. The raven simply stared at the neko, unblinking, until the animal jumped down and approached Sasuke. As it reached him, it rubbed itself against the Uchiha's legs, begging for attention. He wasn't picky, being pet was being pet, and he liked it.

"Nyaa."

"Hn." The raven bent over, intent on picking the pestering feline up. Apparently though, the cat had changed its mind, and had decided that biting the Uchiha's approaching hand had sounded like a much better idea.

"YOU LITTLE SON OF A BITCH! I'LL SNAP YOUR NECK! COME HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Naruto, who had just placed their dinner on the table, jumped when he heard the raven shouting. He turned to go see what the bastard was screaming about. When he heard several loud thumps and a few more curses followed by a loud hissing, he quickly began running downstairs. Confused as to what in the hell was going on and with a million different scenarios going through his head, each more horrible than the last, he was totally unprepared for what he saw. There in front of him was a frazzled looking, out of breath, Sasuke covered in scratches, slumped on the floor with his sharingan blazing and glaring for all he was worth. In front of the Uchiha sat a very pissed off Teme the cat, surrounded by a barrage of shurikan and kunai, hair raised on the back of its head and oddly looking reminiscent to the Uchiha's own duck-butt hair. Sasuke noticed Naruto standing in the doorway, and growled.

"Don't you say a fucking word Dobe."

The blonde was having a very hard time controlling his facial muscles, they were beginning to ache. Inside, he was laughing so hard his external stomach was clenching from exertion. Clearing his throat he informed Sasuke that dinner was ready and that sleepwear was in the top drawer.

"Come on, Teme." Naruto called, a smile breaking free from its restraints.

The previously enraged cat immediately calmed and ran to catch up to the nice man, hoping for a bit of food. As he jumped onto the sunny man's shoulder, he could feel the glare and suddenly increased killing intent of that asshole that had too many pointy things at his disposal. If he hadn't had nine lives he would have never made it. That crazy human with his freaky arms spewing out sharp shinies had really good aim. The cat turned back to face the raven.

"Nyaa." Then, dismissing the human entirely began snuggling up to the nice man's neck.

"DOBE, YOU NAMED THAT INCARNATION OF EVIL TEME?"

Unrestrained laughter rang throughout the house.

* * *

Dinner had been a rather interesting affair, in Naruto's opinion, and defiantly quite amusing. Sasuke, upon seeing all his favorites laid out on the table, voiced a small thanks and dug in, though not without shooting his best Uchiha glare towards the cat that he had decided was a minion of the devil. Naruto had forbid killing the atrocious little beast. Sasuke had also done his fair share of grumbling under his breath about said minion eating his tomatoes. Apparently Naruto had gotten him hooked on cottage cheese with tomato. The grumbles and glares might have eventually stopped if Teme had left the raven well enough alone, but the cat had decided that this human had far too many similarities to himself and that, to get him away from his sunny man, drastic measures would have to be taken. The mischievous neko on a mission, after finishing his food given to him by his bright master, made his way under the table the two shinobi were currently dining at. Reaching his goal, he took a moment to look at the dark man's toes, they looked clean enough. A harsh bite was following by a sharp gasp. Moving quickly, the cat had jumped onto the table while the man was distracted by his throbbing toe, and placed himself on his haunches in front of Sasuke's plate. As soon as Sasuke noticed him, the cat looked him dead in the eye.

"Nyaa!" Still maintaining eye contact the neko bent over and licked every piece of sushi the Uchiha had.

"Nyaa!" He then jumped out the window above the table and disappeared into the night.

For a moment, neither ninja moved or said anything, though the looks they wore said it all. The Uchiha looked like his normal stoic self, but the spinning tomoes in his eyes told another story. Naruto on the other hand was staring at Sasuke's plate, eyes wide and mouth agape. Slowly though, the gape turned into a shit-eating-grin. The blonde turned his eyes upwards and noticed the Uchiha's controlled rage. The Uzumaki knew then that he loved Teme more than he ever had before. That cat was a gift from Kami-sama himself! It was hard to get Sasuke that worked up, he was an expert at it, he should know.

"Sas-"

"You know dobe," Sasuke said, cutting the blonde off before the blonde could say whatever asinine comment that was bound to come spewing from his mouth, "I don't think I'm hungry anymore. I think I'm going to go relax in the onsen. You might want to tell your minion from hell that although I may not be 'allowed' to kill it," a roll of the eyes inserted here, "I am very capable in the ways of torture. I don't care if it's your precious pet, that cat just declared war."

The evil aura and maniacal chuckling as Sasuke left the table was enough to send shivers down Naruto's spine. He decided then and there that this was a war he would not get involved in. _'Let the bastards duke it out. Who in the hell declares war on a freaking cat anyway?' _A large smile broke out on Naruto's face, _'Yup, definitely an interesting dinner.'_

The onsen, in Sasuke's opinion was much better. There were no evil minions, only him, the dobe, and the steam. Much better. The cat had been a nice distraction from what he had to do tonight, but now, sitting in the soothing water, his thoughts returned to him. He had a lot to tell Naruto, or at least it was a lot to him. There were a lot of ways the dobe could react as well. He also wanted to know how the blonde had cleared his name.

"Dobe," Sasuke turned to his left facing the blonde sitting beside him, "How did you clear my name?"

Naruto looked over at the raven, "Huh? Oh, it was easy actually."

"Easy?"

"Un, you just have to know how to work Tsunade. Once she agreed, I just had to have each clan head sign a petition. Root was disbanded, the council members and Danzo exiled, so there wasn't a lot of resistance. A lot of our generation has taken leadership of their clans, and for those who hadn't, I called in a few favors. They were pretty understanding, though I think my defeating Pein had something to do with it." The blonde shrugged his shoulders.

"How'd you get Tsunade to agree then?"

"Hah! I had to pay off her debts and I have to do missions for free until I become Hokage. I also had to give her some of the Uchiha Sake I found in one of the cellars. Sorry about that, but alcohol for freedom sounded fair enough to me. There's still some in the vault though, I didn't give all of it to her."

"Hn."

"I know it sounds a bit... I don't know, cheap? Easy? Well whatever. But I think they just wanted to pay me back or something you know? And Tsunade knows I wouldn't have put up with you being treated like dirt because this village made some bad decisions."

The raven raised an eyebrow at this. "Bad decisions?"

"Well yeah, like ordering Itachi to... err... and them treating me like a monster and wanting to kill me and all of that."

"Dobe, its okay, you know? You can talk about my family and Itachi. Makes sense though, why I couldn't track the council members and Danzo down."

"Ah, they were killed shortly after their exile by some supposedly unknown shinobi, about a mile outside of the gates."

"Hn. If you don't get pay, how do you live?"

"Jiriaya had a lot of money saved up. Never used his own, ya know? He was always asking me for money." A fond smile played across the blonde's lips. "He willed it to me. He's probably pissed that I used a quarter of it to pay off Baa-Chan's debts though." He let out a snicker.

"Hn" The raven smirked. "Where's this vault at? What did you manage to salvage?"

"Oh! It's in Myobokuzan and-"

"Wait, what? Myobok-huh? I've never heard of it."

"Ah, right. You wouldn't have. Uh, Myobokuzan. Just think of it as happy frog land."

Sasuke let out a snort. "Happy frog land? Only you, dobe, only you."

"Hey bastard! Anyway, no one can get there but me so it's totally safe. On top of that there are chakra specific seals and a password to open the vault. Not that you appreciate it, asshole. I found some sake, like I said earlier. There were also random bits of furniture and china, a couple of paintings, a really old fan... It's got its own seal and protection."

"Hn. Sounds like the first Uchiha fan my father had in his study. And I do appreciate it, usuratonkachi."

Now it was Naruto's turn to snort. "Che, sure you do teme."

Sasuke moved closer to Naruto, turning his whole body to face the blonde, onyx eyes meeting cerulean.

"I mean it, Naruto. For everything, thank you."

The Uzumaki was stunned into silence. It wasn't the fact that Sasuke had thanked him, it was the way he went about it. The raven had used his name and his eyes spoke of his gratitude. Naruto was rather glad he could still read the Uchiha's eyes; they told you more than the raven ever would. His only reply to Sasuke was a shrug of the shoulders and a blinding smile.

The two were silent for a time. Each reflecting on what it had taken to get to this point. Naruto's future as Hokage was also on the line. If Sasuke stepped out of line he would have to forfeit his running for the title, as well as the title itself when he was appointed Hokage. Naruto didn't mind though, Sasuke was definitely the most important of his two life goals at this point. There was no need to tell Sasuke any of that though, and besides, the Uchiha was grateful and that was all that mattered. The silence was broken when the raven cleared his throat. It was his turn now, to say whatever he needed to. But how? Deciding that when it came to Naruto, bluntness was almost always the best way to approach a subject, he began speaking while watching the blonde from the corner of his eye.

"I have a child. Or well, I will soon."

Naruto's eyes were wide, and a whisper left his lips. "You're going to be a father?"

When the Uchiha nodded his head in the affirmative, a strange light entered Naruto's eyes. He glomped the unsuspecting raven. "Sasuke, that's awesome! You're going to be a father! Oh wait, we need a room! When is the baby due? Is it a boy or a girl? Oh we need paint! And I think there was even a crib in the vault! This is going to be amazing! Oh Kami-sama, Sasuke's going to be a daddy!"

Sasuke, by the point, had run out of air and the jumping blonde that was currently strangling him in his choke hold wasn't helping at all.

"Dobe! I need to breathe!" When the Uchiha was ignored, he upped his voice. "DOBE! You fatass, you're crushing me. I said get off, dammit!" When he was ignored yet again, he had to resort to the only tactic he knew. He punched the over excited blonde in the face.

"Hey! Bastard! Why'd you punch me?" Naruto was shaking his fist at the raven, when a thought occurred to him, and suddenly all of his anger was gone.

"Ne, Sasuke? Did you get married then? Do you have a girlfriend? Or did you just knock up some random stranger to bear your Uchiha babies? That's really not very nice you know." Naruto looked off towards the garden.

"Quit scolding me Dobe. Let's go through all that one at a time. Yes, I am going to have a child. The baby is due in a couple of weeks, and I don't know if it will be a boy or a girl. It doesn't really matter. No I'm not married. No I do not have a girlfriend. And no, I absolutely did not knock up some random stranger to bear my Uchiha babies." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Only Naruto would spout off this nonsense. "I need more than just me to reform my clan. I didn't want to just sleep with someone for that purpose though. In fact the idea of sleeping with any woman makes me shudder. I used a service, in Grass Country, to artificially inseminate a woman. When the baby is about to be born, this seal will tingle, letting me know." Sasuke pointed out a small round seal on his palm.

"So you did knock up some stranger for your Uchiha babies! Wait... you're gay?" Naruto's eyes were once again incredibly wide. Sasuke vaguely wondered if they ever hurt from bugging out of their sockets like that so much.

"Hn. I never thought about it. I've only ever found one person attractive. Not much to go on there." He shrugged.

Naruto stared at him for a few minutes. "Oh. Well I love a guy, so I don't care either way." The blonde then stood left the bath muttering to himself about diapers and toys and numerous other baby paraphernalia. The Uchiha just sat there stunned a few moments before he unknowingly activated his Sharingan for the third time that night. He wondered silently to himself if murder was still frowned upon in Konoha.

Later that night, Naruto was awoken by the sound of music. At first he thought it was the radio alarm on his clock that he had thrown under his bed yesterday morning. Upon waking further though, he realized the sound came not from under his bed, but from his open window. As he looked out the window his breath caught in his throat and it felt like the kyuubi was rolling around in his stomach. Sitting among the tomato plants that he had planted was Sasuke, humming to himself while strumming an old black acoustic guitar. A single ray of moonlight was breaking through the surrounding foliage, illuminating the scene with an ethereal glow, a slight wind blowing the grasses and leaves, along with raven hair. The Uchiha looked serene, determined, and contemplative all at the same time and Naruto wondered if he had ever seen anything as entrancing before. No, he decided, nothing had compared to this, this scene of night personified.

He rose from his bed, intending to go to the raven, but stopped himself as he opened the door. If Sasuke was night personified then he, Naruto, would be the day. If that was the case, then day didn't belong there, in the night. He didn't want to destroy the beauty that was before him. So he stood there, in the doorway, and watched and basked the exquisiteness of the moment. It didn't last long though. Soon Sasuke finished his song and glanced up, catching sight of Naruto. The raven smirked at him and beckoned him over with a wave of his hand. Sitting down next to the Uchiha, Naruto chastised himself internally for thinking he would ruin the scene that Sasuke had painted around him. There was nothing that could mar it.

"What song was that?" The blonde asked in a low voice.

"Just a song." Sasuke shrugged.

"It sounded good, I liked it. Did you write it?"

"Hn." Sasuke once again started strumming the same song. It was a slow song and Naruto thought that it was probably a ballad. A few bars into the song, Sasuke began humming as well.

"Sing for me Sasuke."

The raven glanced over towards his companion with a shy smile. He shook his head. Naruto just rolled his eyes before closing them, focusing on the sounds produced by his best friend. The song stirred something within him, something he couldn't name. It was if he could envision the lyrics. He didn't actually know them, nor could he ever attempt at guessing what they would be. It was more of a picture in his mind. It was one of love and acceptance, and about finding your way to where you belonged. As the song ended, the both stood.

Flashing a smile towards the raven, Naruto whispered a quick, "Thanks, and goodnight." before turning to go back to his room. A hand on his wrist stopped him however. He turned back towards the Uchiha. When he made no move to let his wrist go, and said nothing, Naruto was confused.

"Sasuke?"

Said raven looked up into eyes filled with so many things it was impossible to ever read them all in any lifetime. Naruto, however, was not having the same problem, as right now there was only one emotion filling Sasuke's eyes and it left the blonde breathless and numb. The Uchiha gave the blonde one of his few genuine smiles as he stepped closer to him, bending to whisper into his ear.

"I'll make you fall for me. I promise."

His words were sealed with a hand to the cheek and a brush of the lips. Suddenly the blonde was no longer numb and incredible feeling blazed through his nerves and coursed through his veins. Sasuke left a stunned Naruto standing in the garden, going back to his room. Naruto was quite unaware of anything around him. He slowly raised his hand to his lips and softly smiled. His eyes radiated with wonder and awe. He was still there, in that position, as the sun started to rise above the horizon.

* * *

A/N: Story takes place after Naruto defeats Pein, but then diverts from there. Check out my profile for links to accompany this fic.

Naruto (c) Kishimoto

Plot, Teme, & Akira (c) Me


	2. Kazoku

Chapter 2

It had been a week since Sasuke's return to Konoha. A week filled with shopping, painting, decorating, and generally getting used to being back in Konoha again. Although Sasuke had declared his intentions of 'wooing' Naruto, things hadn't changed much. As such, it was put onto the back burner of the blonde's ever scattered mind, leaving only thoughts of the child they would soon have in their home. There were frequent arguments over what were acceptable colors and what were not. Sasuke was very firm in his belief that orange was most defiantly not a color that normal people used in such large amounts as the blonde seemed to think was necessary. Six hours in the home improvement store was enough for the raven though, even if seeing the dobe pout like he was a kid again all while proclaiming the wonder that was orange.

"Dobe, it's my child and I said NO! You're not going to burn out my child's retinas!" Argument settled they left the store, the raven toting four gallons of ivory and dusky rose paint and a pouting blonde behind him.

The past week had also been filled with various 'talks'. When Sakura had found out about Sasuke's intentions with Naruto, she immediately became a squealing mess, somewhere between avid fangirl and protective sister. The whole conversation had thrown Sasuke off.

* * *

~Flashback~

* * *

"Sasuke, we need to talk."

A pair of granite eyes met with jade, a perfectly sculpted brow raised in question, and for a moment Sakura wondered how Sasuke managed to have such perfect arches to his brow. _'Guys shouldn't have better eyebrows than girls!' _Shaking her head to clear the silly thoughts, Sakura continued on, shoving her way through the partially opened front door of the Uzumaki/Uchiha residence.

"Why... Why did you come back Sasuke? If you're here for good, if you're here to stay, then I won't say anything. But if you're just going to leave again, or you plan on hurting Naruto in any-"

"Sakura-" The pinkette ignored Sasuke, and started pacing.

"And I don't care if you think you're the baddest mother fucker out there or not! Naruto can't take anymore pain, not from you. So I'm telling you now, I swear, if you make him cry, I'll kill you."

For a moment, while staring into emerald eyes burning with a determination he had never seen there before, Sasuke wondered when his pinkette ex-teammate got so strong, so mature. Hiding a small smile, the Uchiha led his friend to the living room and to a seat on the couch.

"Sakura..." An uncharacteristically large sigh escaped the raven. "I'm not sure what you want to hear from me. After... after I had completed my revenge... had killed Itachi... I felt... well I suppose most people would call it lost, or empty... but it was more than that. But, before I could really figure anything out, Madara stepped in." A bitter smirk wound itself onto pristine pale lips. "Seems there's always someone who wants to fuck with my head. Anyways, after all of that. I was even more lost, emptier, or whatever you want to call it. During that time, the only thing I had inside was hate... Kami! So much hate. It was intense all the time... overpowering."

The raven went quiet for a time, seemingly stuck in his memories, but Sakura had heard enough. A hard punch to the back of the head of the brooding man next to her made her feel immensely satisfied.

"If you're quite done, I don't give a shit about all of that. In fact, no one does."

"No... One?"

"That's right, no one. I'll sum it up shall we? Your brother hacked up everyone in your family and ran away to Evil'R'Us. You went over to the emo side. We formed our team. You became a little less emo. Then you got bitten by a pedophile snake, and signed your emo club card again. Decided punching a hole through Naruto's chest sounded super keen, and ran off to join the freaky snake bastard and did who knows what for a couple of years, then off'd him. Made your own team, *cough*whosuck*cough* and managed to off your brother. Which wasn't all that awesome, was it? Then what was next? Oh yeah, you decided to go join Evil'R'Us, because that's totally the logical thing to do. Then you off'd what was left of them. After that... who knows? But it's not hard to guess. You went emo somewhere out in the middle of no where. Cut yourself, cried, who knows... who cares? All that shit... who cares. I live in an emo free zone, please stop polluting my air. You're here, and that was fine but now you wanna fuck Naruto. That's what I care about. And even if it is hotter than hell... you had better have good intentions."

Sasuke was dumbfounded. If he had been the Sasuke that she had known before he left, he'd be hard pressed not to punch her in the face. As it was, he had changed, if only slightly, but enough that he could overlook the blunt 30second 'This is your Life' Sakura Style" that he had just been presented. All the same, he did allow himself a small rant in his head. _'What the fuck was that? What in the hell do you mean you don't want to hear my reasons, isn't that what you just asked for? No one cares? The hell? Do you realize how long I spent practicing saying this shit, and I still suck! You've got a freaking UCHIHA here, dammit, talking about feelings and shit. Isn't this a freaking Kodak moment or something? Cut myself? Yeah, I'll cut something alright... Didn't I think of her as mature just a second ago?'_

"Now, now, Sasuke. Put the eyes of death away. All I am saying is thatif you love him, and I mean really love him... then I won't say anything. But if you make him cry, you'll die. See? It rhymes, so it's easy to remember. No cry or you die. See? Make a song with it; put it as your ring tone. Who knows might save your life one day. Ja!"

As Sakura let herself out of the house, Sasuke again wondered what in the hell had happened while he was gone. Wasn't Sakura... quieter... or at least... a bit more polite than that? Now the girl had the mouth of a sailor and was apparently not affected by him in the slightest. _'Ah well.'_ Sasuke thought, _'It's better than her following me around like a sick puppy. Good luck to you, Clone, wherever you are... you're going to need it... and what in the hell is a ring tone?'_

* * *

~End Flashback~

* * *

Following his conversation with Sakura, Sasuke decided he should make things clear to Naruto. He wasn't even sure Naruto wanted to be pursued. Sure, Naruto had said that he was in love with a man, but that didn't mean he was open to Sasuke's affections. The raven couldn't help but to confess though, after hearing such a thing. That his innocent little blonde had affections for someone caused incinerating surges of jealousy to run through his veins, burning away all real reason. It was probably a good thing the dobe didn't tell him who it was he was infatuated with. Naruto tended to frown upon murder, as did most of Konoha. _'Damn! You don't know how lucky you are punk! You had better not have done anything to my kitsune, or you'll never be recognized as a man by anyone again!'_

That evening Naruto had been summoned to the Hokage's office, so Sasuke decided that he would prepare a special dinner for his dobe, and lay it all out for him. Everyone knows if you're making a meal especially for Naruto, you only really have one option, Ramen. Throughout his travels, Sasuke had picked up on a number of things. An old man had once asked for help running his shop for a few hours in exchange for room and board. Deciding that he had slept on the forest floor for long enough, took the man up on his offer and soon learned how to make great ramen, ramen that was far less salty than back in Konoha. Dinner was placed on the table just as Naruto walked into the house.

"Mmmmm... something smells great... ramen great... eh? Sasuke?" The blonde called out.

"In the kitchen, Dobe!"

"You had better not have broken anything!"

"Whatever you say Dobe. Come eat, before the RAMEN gets cold."

The blonde was seated at the kitchen table in the blink of an eye, and in two blinks had given his "Itadakimasu" and dug in. Sasuke just smirked at the predictability of his friend and sat down at the table as well. A few minutes into the meal, however, Sasuke realized his mistake. While they had eaten ramen since his return, they had always done so at Ichiraku's. At said establishment, you sat on stools next to your dining companions. Here, however, the Uchiha was forced to face his friend. Watching the object of his affections slurp down ramen noodles at an unbelievable pace was causing images not suitable for dining to flash through his head. _'Who knew watching the Dobe slurp down ramen like that would be so fucking erotic?' _Noticing that Naruto's bowl was already empty, Sasuke slid is own bowl toward the blonde.

"Really? You don't want it Sasuke?"

"Hn."

The meal had finished rater quickly as they always do when the blonde and ramen are involved. Naruto spoke of the random things that had happened during the day, and Sasuke was content to just sit and watch his idiot companion suck down noodle after noodle. When all of the food was gone and Naruto had said his thanks, Sasuke broke himself out of his self induced noodle stupor and caught the blonde's attention.

"Ne, Dobe... I think I should clarify some things."

"Eh? What do you mean Sasuke?" Naruto asked getting up to take the dishes to the sink.

"Er... well... What I mean, dobe, is that I'm not sure you understand me or the situation we're in."

Naruto couldn't help but laugh at his friend a bit. "What don't you think I understand? You're here, I'm here, and soon we'll have a chibi with us as well."

Sasuke sighed, folded his arms on the table and buried his face in the crook of his elbow; he could feel his face start to burn red. "I was referring to my... err... feelings for you."

Naruto too now was sporting a fantastic blush. "Err... right. I... I... Maybe you're right. I don't think I do understand. In the onsen you had said you had only had affections for one person... then you say you're gonna make me... err... and then you ki...ki..."

Sasuke lifted his head from the table, smirking. "Dobe, are you embarrassed? You're face is bright red."

"Sh-Shut up Teme! So what! You're face is red too!"

That wiped the smirk off of the ravens face. "I'm not embarrassed. My clan does not get embarrassed."

"Nani? Heh, hate to break it to you teme, but you _are _your clan. And since you are embarrassed, that proves Uchiha's aren't infallible."

Sasuke had never thought of it like that before. It was true. Sasuke was the Uchiha's. From this point on, whatever he did would shape the Uchiha name. He could mold his clan into something greater than it was. A family free from sibling hunting, a family free from indifferent parenting. At the moment it was just him, but soon his child would be here, and the Uchiha name would continue. And if he played his cards right, Naruto would be a part of that as well. A brilliant star to chase away the darkness that Sasuke's family had bathed in for years. With this revelation, all embarrassment was gone, and only a strong desire make sure that the beautiful being in front of him would join with him forever was left. The raven quickly stood, and made his way over to the blonde. Grasping his shoulders lightly, looking into the enchanting blue depths that were Naruto's eyes, Sasuke took a breath and prepared to make sure Naruto would be _quite_ sure of his feelings.

"Dobe... Naruto... I lo-ITAI!" Sasuke pulled his hands back as if he had been stung.

"What's wrong Sasuke?"

"The seal, it's time. We've got to go." The raven replied, raising his palm to show Naruto the seal burning there.

"Time? Time for what?"

"Dobe! The baby's coming. This seal tells me when it's time, remember?"

"Shit! Sasuke! The baby's coming! We've got to go!"

Naruto ran out of the house, intent on telling Tsunade that it was time, and they'd be gone a few days to get the newest Uchiha. The raven just shook his head, grabbed the bags they had packed and placed near the door, and followed Naruto out the door.

Three shinobi ran through the misty darkness, leaping from tree to tree in covert silence. The urgency and expectations felt by all was heavy and saturating, mimicking the fog, pressing upon the ninja as if they were fathoms deep in an inescapable ocean.

For Uchiha Sasuke, their goal meant a portion of his damaged soul would be saved, it meant filling the emptiness. He was about to be a father and he made a silent vow to himself to give his everything for the happiness of this child, for his heir to have a childhood he did not get to experience. _'It's time to start over.' _Sasuke took a deep breath as he ran through the canopy. _'I'll take my child back to Konoha, get the damn dobe under me,' _the Uchiha let a devious smirk grace his lips, his eyes lit with determination, something akin to hope, and more than a bit of lust. _'We'll live in that little house and be a family. The dobe will be Hokage, I'll... well I guess that depends on Tsunade for the time being but... we'll be happy and...' _Sasuke barely prevented himself from stumbling once he realized what he was thinking, it was getting way too "Mary Poppins", as an old man had once told him. Regardless of his temporarily mushy brain, one thing was for sure, the old ways of the Uchiha clan would be abolished.

For Uzumaki Naruto, their destination meant his friend would find his family again, and he hoped that it also meant the very end of the ravens self-induced isolation. In Naruto's opinion, not only had Sasuke been searching for revenge all this time, but simply a place, a family he could once again call his own. Everything had been taken from him at such a young age, and for so long he had been adrift in the darkness of that fateful night. The blonde had been chasing after the Uchiha for so long he knew, once Sasuke found what he was searching for all this time, Naruto would be able to find him; really find him. In the time since the raven had been back he had shown a great interest in explaining himself. In Naruto's eyes, Sasuke wanted forgiveness and most of all understanding. _'The damn Teme!' _Naruto rolled his eyes and smirked at his friend running ahead of him. _'I wish he'd understand I don't need all of that. I already understand him, and for shit's sake, he put his hand through my chest and I still didn't hate him. Who knew the Teme could be so insecure?'_ Naruto snickered to himself. _'Eeee-moooooo.'_

For Hatake Kakashi, it was a mission to keep an eye on the Uchiha. However, it also meant seeing his students grow, seeing the next generation arrive, and with all the crazy atmosphere going on during their trip, he might be so lucky as to see his two students finally snog the hell out of each other. Kakashi wasn't one who normally cared about making others wait, or waiting himself, however, 8 years of waiting was far too long by anyones standards. He and Iruka had a long standing bet as to if and when the two would finally break down and realize that they've been in love with each other forever. Kakashi had his money set on them ending up in the sack within the next two weeks. Iruka, on the other hand, had said six months at the soonest. _'Ah my dear naive little Dolphin-Chan, you think your sweet Naruto is oh so innocent. Wonder what they'd both do if I told Iruka how big of a pervert that boy really is...' _

Their trip meant this and so much more, for they were on their way to witness the birth of and retrieve the now 2nd living Uchiha. When they were 5 miles from the facility where Sasuke had chosen to conceive his child and the fog had lifted, the raven raised his hand signaling the others to stop. Three inky shadows descended to the forest floor.

"Ok, here's the plan." Sasuke motioned the others over to him, his raven hair catching a small breeze and whipped over his eyes.

"Plan? Why do we need a plan?" Their blonde companion asked while scratching the back of his neck, his brow wrinkled in confusion, all the while staring at the wisp dancing across the pale face in front of him.

"Because, _usuratonkachi_, all ego aside, I am the last Uchiha. Even with Madara dead there are still people out there who would make use of any part of me, especially my kid. The facility doesn't know who I am. I had to disguise myself and make up a story." Sasuke retorted pushing the aggravating strand out of his eyes.

"My, my, how inventive of you Sasuke." Kakashi smirked at him, or at least appeared to, behind his mask. "And what was this disguise? This background?"

The raven hesitated and seemed to struggle internally before sighing and raising his hands to his chest, forming a few hand seals. "Sexy no Jutsu." There was a popping sound, a poof of smoke, and a now female Sasuke standing naked, shivering in the forest. The Uchiha stood there glaring at 'her' sensei and best friend, who were now looking a bit perplexed, a bit amused, and more than a bit red in the cheeks.

"Mah, you know Sasuke, I don't normally go for women, but I have to say, you're quite... attractive."

Kakashi snickered at his student's horrified look. Beside the perverted sensei, Naruto was vigorously nodding his head in agreement, eyes wide, drinking in the sight of a naked Sasuke, even if he was a she. _'His... her... shit what do I call him? Her? Ergh! Him. Ok. His hair's a bit longer, his cheekbones a bit higher. Defiantly slimmer, but with wider hips. Ah yes and you can't forget the breasts. Right. Eh?'_

"You're naked!" The blonde shouted, pointing a finger at the Uchiha, a furious blush visible on his cheeks, even in the darkness in which they stood.

"Dobe! No shit! Isn't this your technique? Why don't you perverts turn around and let me get dressed. We're in a hurry here." While the raven was dressing in a simple baby blue kimono with a white obi, Naruto's curiosity once again took over his mouth.

"Why didn't you just add clothes to the henge? I always do it naked for the shock effect is has on the pervs, but..."

Sasuke's eyes widened, _"Ehh? Shit, I didn't even think of it that way... the dobe kept transforming back to himself, sans clothes in my head, it was hard enough concentrating as it was!" _He continued speaking, ignoring Naruto's grumblings about the mis-use of his jutsu.

"Now, the story. My name is Shurishi Tsubaki. I am barren but do not wish my husband, a noble in a neighboring country, to know. I must give him an heir. I knew he was getting ready to leave for a year, so I procured some of his semen and brought it here to be inseminated into a , done, you can turn around. I suppose since you're with me, I must have hired some Konoha Ninja. That's fine though, it's believable. We'll continue Southeast for another half an hour or so. Let's go."

The Yamamoto Institute of Conception was a clean, modern, ten-story building. Unlike it's name though, the facility did not look institutional at all. The inside reception area was furnished with large plush couches and chairs, magazines and children's toys were scattered here and there on the various tables around the room. They made their way up to the tenth floor, the delivery floor, and 'Shurishi Tsubaki' walked up to the counter where 'she' was greeted by a middle age bald woman wearing a purple moo-moo and entirely too much makeup.

"What can I do for you darlin'?" The woman kindly asked.

"Hello..." Sasuke looked at the woman's name tag, "Hikari-San. I'm Shurishi Tsubaki, I'm here for a birth." The raven raised his hand to show the woman the seal on his palm.

Hikari's face paled slightly as she cleared her throat and stood up. "Shurishi-San, I'm afraid we've some bad news. The woman carrying the child gave birth just ten minutes ago, but she didn't make it through the birth, and the wee one is having one hell of a time." Hikari looked to the raven haired women to see if she had heard. Sasuke, however, was stone still, eyes wide. Hikari looked to the ninja accompanying her client. The blonde one was walking toward her at a very fast pace, and she bumped the chair behind her as she instinctively started backing up.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Naruto screamed at the woman. "Sa-Tsubaki!" He turned towards Sasuke who still seemed unable to properly react to the situation. "Shit! Where? Where's the baby?" Naruto demanded from the attendant.

When she pointed towards a closed door to her left, the blonde took off running as fast as he could. Sasuke was clearly in shock, but Kakashi was still there. At the moment all he was concerned with was the baby's life. He didn't know what was going on or really what he could do, but he had to do something. His heart was pounding harder than he could ever remember as he ripped the door open and plunged inside. Door after door lined the hallway on either side, coo's and cries could be heard coming from a few opened doorways. The blonde didn't stop to peek in each room, but instead just ran, as if something was pulling him. Then he heard it, a cry louder than all the others, a cry that resonated deep within him, and his speed increased. The few nurses and fellow patients that were loitering in the hallway were pushed as gently as possible to the side as Naruto raced toward the cry he could still hear echoing in his head. As he neared the end of the hallway, he again heard that heart wrenching scream. He had barely reached the last door on the right before he had flung the door open, the lower half coming off of it's hinges.

In the corner there was a crowd of nurses and doctors surrounding a bundle of screaming pink. They were yelling orders to each other, calling for various instruments and medicines. Naruto paid no heed to any of this, his surroundings a complete blur to him, only hearing two sets of footsteps finally following him down the hallway, and the crying babe before him. As soon as he saw the baby, met it's infantile blue eyes, everything was lost save for that baby, Sasuke's baby. Keeping eye contact with the surprisingly alert but distressed baby, Naruto shoved the doctors out of his way. He closed his eyes and dispelled one of the bunshin he now always kept in Myobokuzan and felt the natural chakra flow into him.

Naruto picked up the crying infant, shushing it and rocking it back and forth as a measure of comfort. The child was shaking and having troubles drawing a full breath, but was no longer crying. "Shh, shh Aka-chan. Don't worry, Daddy's coming." As soon as the words left his mouth, Sasuke burst through the door, his eyes immediately falling upon the two most important people in his life. Naruto caught his eye, gave a small jerk of the head towards the only window in the room, and proceeded to jump out of it while forming seals one handed.

"DOBE! What are you doing? You're ten floors up!" 'Tsubaki' hollered after his best friend, running towards the window.

Sasuke waited for the sound of impact, but instead heard a familiar popping sound, followed by a large tremor. Reaching the window, he looked out and realized what Naruto had done. _'Since when can he summon with only one hand?' _There stood Naruto standing upon Gamabunta, and appeared to be rubbing a small circle over his infant's chest, a faint glowing could be seen where his fingers met the child's chest, right over his heart. Again, he and the blonde locked eyes.

"Hurry up, we've got to get to Tsunade as fast as possible!" Naruto all but screamed at his fellow shinobi. Everyone there could read the fear in his eyes.

"Wait!" Called out one of the doctors. "You can't just take a baby from here! There are proced-" The man, along with all personnel in the room were knocked unconscious before he could complete his complaint, and Kakashi followed his students out the window.

Three shinobi were off once again into the inky darkness, their hopes, their concerns all infinitely more pressing than when they had left Konoha. It was a race against time, a race for life. The following hours were the most terrifying moments of Naruto's life. It had been touch and go with the infant the entire way, the child actually having stopped breathing on more than one occasion, and it's heart had stopped a couple of times as well. All the while though Naruto fed his chakra into the baby, continuously rubbing that small circle over the tiny heart beating in the tiny chest he held in his arms. Sasuke and Kakashi had held Naruto still the entire time. Pouring so much concentration and all of his will into his task, Naruto couldn't even focus his chakra into his feet to hang onto the ever bounding Gamabunta. Sasuke hadn't said a word the whole time, but Naruto could feel his hands shaking against his hips.

When they reached the village, Naruto instructed Gamabunta to jump the gate and go directly to the Hokage tower. In one last great leap the giant toad did as instructed. He had barely landed when his passengers jumped simultaneously through the Hokage office window.

Tsunade's brow was covered in sweat, she was exhausted and desperately wanted just one cup of sake to calm her nerves. In front of her lay the Uchiha's child, surrounded by blankets, tiny chest exposed so she could continue strengthening the various vessels and chakra pathways. Behind the Hokage, Naruto was pacing, constantly throwing heart wrenching looks at her back. She didn't dare to take her eyes away from the infant in front of her, but she could feel those expressive penetrating eyes on her, silently screaming at her to _'Please, Ba-Chan, oh kami-sama please! Save the baby!' _The Uchiha on the other hand was completely motionless.

His presence was not lost however. He stood on the opposite side of the table from Tsunade. Again, she dared not take her eyes away from her work, but she could feel the chakra Sasuke was unconsciously leaking out in sporadic, powerful bursts. She could see the blankets shift around the tiny chest in front of her as the raven clenched and unclenched his hands around the fabric. And she was almost certain that those famous Uchiha eyes would be shifting, displaying a dizzying array of black and red. She had almost completed her work, but the pressure of the childhood friends was pressing on her.

"Name?"

"Huh?" The blonde asked, ceasing his pacing.

"Sasuke. Your son. What's his name?"

Naruto's eyes widened. He hadn't even thought about whether the child was a boy or a girl. Looking towards Sasuke, Naruto guessed that the raven hadn't either. The blonde's lips upturned as he saw the Sasuke's sharingan fade and he felt his chakra calm. Though he hadn't released the sheets fisted in his hands, he was visibly calmer.

"Uchiha Akira."

The blonde made his way over to the head of the table. Bending down slightly, he gently ran a finger through a few fine, black strands of hair, his blue eyes roaming over the visibly tired and strained infant. Akira hadn't cried since he was picked up by Naruto at the institute. Feeling the light touch at his temple, the baby turned his eyes towards the big bright blob in front of him. He heard soft garbled words, and though he could not comprehend the language, though he was only an infant, a few hours old, he instinctively knew the meaning. A small sigh escaped his small chest as the pain finally ceased. He closed his tired eyes and fell asleep.

"Ganbatte Akira. Don't give up."

Two hours later, Tsunade had finished her treatment. After wrapping Akira in a warm soft dark blue blanket, embroidered with Uchiha fans that Naruto had pulled seemingly out of nowhere, and placing a red beanie bearing similar embellishment oh his head, Tsunade began to report her findings to the two anxious shinobi in front of her. They had been banned from being within ten feet of the table during the last hour of the treatment, they had been driving her nuts with all their anxious looks. _'That's why we have waiting rooms!' _Not that she ever expected them to really use it.

"Alright, he's stabilized," She began, turning towards Naruto and Sasuke. "His mother's body wasn't capable of supporting an Uchiha baby. This typically wouldn't have been a problem. Sure, Uchiha's tend to have a decent amount of chakra, however women have been bearing their children for generations. Perhaps the mother was just weak, though I would have thought you, Sasuke, would have chosen someone generally strong."

For a moment, Sasuke looked at her like she was more of an idiot than Naruto. _'Strong? Of course she would have been strong. I'm sure I made that a requirement...' _The raven thought back to the day he first arrived at the institution.

* * *

Sasuke stared at the papers stacked a foot and a half high in front of him. _'All of this? Just to get some bitch injected?' _The raven sighed, reaching for the stack. The first few pages were what he had expected. What's your name? Your reason for coming? Where are you from? Bla. Bla. Bla. Upon reaching the tenth page, he paused, caught slightly unaware. The top of the page read, "Your preferences for your surrogate mother." _'Preferences? For what?' _He quickly scanned through the questionnaire, marking most as uncaring. Who cares how tall the woman was? Or if she had freckles? The questions seemed to be more and more frivolous the more pages he filled out. It got to the point where he was marking them all as 'uncaring' without even reading them, until he reached two questions, one right after the other that caught his eye and his interest.

What color of hair would you prefer your surrogate mother have? A brief flash of sun drenched locks flashed through his mind and his hand had written out "Blonde" before he had even realized that it had moved. What eye color would you prefer your surrogate mother have? Again a brief vision flashed through the Uchiha's head, this time of endless oceanic depths, and again his hand had moved without his knowledge, writing "Blue". The following questions were like those before and he marked the rest without reading them, his thoughts straying to a child, a mix between dark and light and what they might possibly look like.

* * *

~End Flashback~

* * *

A slight blush covered the Uchiha's cheeks as he realized that the only preferences he had marked down were that the women be blonde and have blue eyes. Clearing his throat and ignoring the questioning looks he was being thrown, he turned towards Tsunade.

"What about Akira?"

"The vessels throughout his body were very weak. His veins, arteries, nerves, even his chakra pathways were all in an extremely chaotic state. Naruto probably saved his life, pumping his chakra through him, reinforcing Akira's vessels. Without that, they most likely would have collapsed long before you reached Konoha." Sasuke inhaled sharply. "Now, however, he's fine. I'm assuming you didn't use any of Kyuubi's chakra, right Naruto?"

The blonde shot her a dirty look. "No."

She nodded her head. "Good."

As she passed Akira to Sasuke, the glare faded from Naruto's face. Sasuke held his son for the first time. With slightly trembling hands, he peeled the blanket back and looked into his sons face. He had seen him of course as he lay on the examining table, but he hadn't wanted to look properly, didn't want to have that tiny face burned into his memory if he lost him, he didn't care if that made him a coward. Akira looked just like a mini-Sasuke, pale skin and all, save for his blue eyes. Whether they were blue because Akira was a newborn and they'd darken up later, or whether they would remain blue, Sasuke didn't know. He found himself hoping for the latter. Akira also had rather long, soft, fine black hair and a small red swirl over his heart where Naruto had continuously fed chakra for so long. '_Perfect.'_

Naruto stood in the doorway to Akira's room, watching as Sasuke tucked him in to bed. He had dug the crib out of the vault while Sasuke was off doing whatever it was he was doing. The raven had been rather pleased to see it in the nursery, or at least that's the way Naruto had interpreted the microscopic widening of black eyes, and the slight nod given. Shrugging to himself, the blonde stood from his slouching position noticing Sasuke approaching him. His eyes held something Naruto hadn't ever seen there before and it made a slight shiver run delightfully down his spine. As he came within reaching distance of the blonde he spoke.

"You saved my son." And while the blonde didn't really see it that way, the onyx depths before him and the smooth tenor of the voice declared it as irrefutable fact.

"My body just moved on it's own. I heard him and I ran," Naruto shrugged, "like he was my own kid. What in the hell else would you have had me do?"

As he finished, the scarred boy looked up at his counterpart, noticing his eyes darkening and developing a slight red sheen to them. _'Hell, that's sexy.' _Lost in his ogling, Naruto failed to notice Sasuke closing the distance between them, until he was pushed into the hallway wall behind him. The raven trapped his prey in between his arms, hard bodies pressed flush. Naruto, not sure what in the hell had just happened, turned his head to the side trying to hide the furious blush that now stained his cheeks. _'Kami, he feels good...' _The blonde bit his lip, preventing himself from groaning aloud.

Feeling the Uchiha shift against him, he turned his head and met lustful eyes with his own. Seeing Sasuke's head begin to descend, his eyes starting to drift closed, Naruto knew what was coming but was unable to process it, even as his own eyes drifted shut, and even when those sinfully beautiful lips touched his own. Only when the raven graced his lower lip with the tip of his tongue did he fully comprehend the situation, and begin to eagerly take part. But, just a few glorious strokes of the tongue later and it was all over.

Pulling his head back just slightly, his nose no more than an inch away from the flushed and dazed man he had pinned his body to, Sasuke surveyed is work. The raven inwardly snickered. He had barely kissed Naruto and he was already close to goo.

"I'm happy you feel that way, Dobe."

Sasuke leaned back in and with a slow grind of the hips, a smirk Naruto would later curse, and one last chaste kiss, he was headed off towards his bedroom. He had almost made it too, before Naruto called out to him, having finally regained some sense of himself.

"O...Oi! Teme! Y-you can't j-just do that! You can't just come up to someone and give them one tiny little k-k-ki-ki..."

Sasuke turned around and took in his blushing companion, his glazed over yet still defiant crystalline eyes, his lips slightly reddened, one hand fisted in his shirt over his heaving chest, the other trying to grip the wall behind him. Sasuke arched an eyebrow and smirked.

"Kiss, Dobe? And what do you mean tiny, look at you..."

"Kiss! Yes, kiss! I can say it you know! You can't just do that, and then walk off... it's... it's... uh... r-rude! Yeah! S-so you just can't."

The blonde nodded to himself, arms coming to cross against his chest. Sasuke chuckled to himself, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint. Naruto visibly gulped when his raven haired best friend started to once again make his way toward him.

"U-uh..."

"So what you're saying, Na-ru-to," The Uchiha smirked, once again pinning the blonde to the wall, "is that you're unsatisfied?"

"U-uh..."

Sasuke reached down and unfolded Naruto arms, bringing them up by the wrists over his head. He nudged the blondes thighs apart with one of his own, moulding their bodies closer together. He began placing small suckling kisses along his best friends collar bone, feeling the blonde begin to tremble in his hold.

Naruto could feel the smirk pressed into his skin, but at the moment he really didn't care. Sparks were flying through his body at an inhuman speed. He couldn't tell if it was just a result of Sasuke's administrations or if the bastard was actually sending a current through his body, though again, he didn't really care. Useless thoughts were soon blown away as Sasuke spoke in a low, husky voice, his breath caressing his ear.

"What is it that you want, 'ruto?"

The blonde let out a muffled whimper. He could feel his body trembling, and inwardly cursed Sasuke. _'Figures the bastard would be good at this too... Ahh to hell with this! I didn't have two pervy sensei's for nothing! Two can play at this game! Being with Sasuke, I know I'm going to end up being the uke, might as well play my part.' _

"I-I want..."

Naruto suddenly felt a great pressure in is chest as he began to speak, gradually moving upwards towards his throat blowing all thoughts of foreplay revenge from his mind. Sasuke, so focused on the little nips and licks he was giving, couldn't see the slight discomfort Naruto was in, nor hear the borderline panic in his dobe's voice.

"Er...I..want..."

Both Naruto and Sasuke felt the blonde's chest heave. The Uchiha, thinking that this was just too much from his friend, began to withdraw only to be stopped by the fisted and trembling hands that had a death grip on his shirt.

"No! I-I want..." Naruto tried to spit it out before the strange sensation in his chest increased. "I want..." The blonde began coughing only to stop almost immediately . His body had frozen stiff, and his eyes were slightly unfocused gazing over Sasuke's left shoulder.

"It-Itachi..."

Sasuke immediately stiffened. His dobe wanted his dead brother... not him. He had killed his brother for revenge, to avenge his family, and even though it didn't really work out that way, he hadn't really felt guilty until right then. He had killed the one that Naruto wanted, the one that wasn't him. _'Shit! He wants Itachi? Shit! No, no... It's ok... I can make him fall for me right? That's what I said before, I'll make him fall for me! Itachi and I already, at least, look similar right? I mean I'm obviously far more sexy than he was but draw a couple lines on my face and it's pretty close right?' _The raven withdrew from his oddly silent companion, groaning to himself. _'Who am I kidding? Shit! This is horrible! Shit! Ok, calm down Sasuke! Think! Naruto will never love you because he wants your dead brother, whom you killed... Shit! I don't even know where to begin... this was not in my itinerary dammit!'_

Naruto thought he had to be dreaming. That was the only explanation he could come up with. First he had gotten the living daylights kissed out of him, then he has a rather painful chest ache which disappeared almost as quickly as it had shown up, something had flown out of his mouth and now... He didn't know what was going on anymore. He faintly recognized the faint shifting in front of him, as Sasuke detached himself from the blonde, but he was in no position to clarify the situation nor rectify whatever thoughts may be running through his best friend's head. Everything he had was focused on the entity in front of him.

Both shinobi were finally released from the spell the moment had cast over them as they heard a rather loud hissing sound. Sasuke, having learned from previous experience, immediately began searching for the only demonic presence that could produce such an irritating noise. He soon located the beast on the floor, a mere three feat away, furiously swatting at a black piece of fabric. _'Black? Wasn't the dobe been wearing his blue training pants today?' _

Teme, the cat, had had just about enough of these strange dark men appearing in his house. _'I won't allow this any longer! He's _my _bright man! Mine!' _He reared back on his hind haunches, rear end swaying, preparing the attack. He had tried a warning shot but his claws, it seemed, were only capable of shifting the linen slightly. A full out attack was needed! With that, Teme sprung, aiming at his targets legs, fully anticipating the moment his claws would meet flesh. He was not, however, prepared to go sailing _away_ from the figure, the boot to his midsection catching him quite off guard.

Sasuke stared dumbfounded as the cat flew away from his prey. The raven allowed his suddenly curious eyes drift upwards along the long folds of billowing clothe. What he found at the top of said clothing caused him to let out a loud, girly scream that any horror film would have been happy to feature.

Teme was irate. Disregarding the scream; he knew how he felt, were he blessed with the capability he would see fit to scream as well. He decided to change his battle plans. If a direct attack wasn't applicable, perhaps a more underhanded trick would do. He had planned to save this particular gem of an attack for the other dark man, but desperate times called for desperate measures. And besides, that last little incident had hurt his cat pride! With that, he made his way back over to the offender and proceeded to hike his leg up and urinate all over the said person's cloak.

"Nyaa!"

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. Sasuke screaming like a woman about to be decapitated, his innocent little kitten unknowingly attacking one of the deadliest beings that ever walked the earth, and said deadly being simply staring down at his ruined clothing, a slight frown on his face. Naruto laughed. It was a bitter, slightly maniacal laugh, so unlike the blonde haired shinobi that all present in the hallway looked towards him with slightly questioning looks.

"G-gee look Sasuke! Your dead b-brother just flew out of my mouth! He's here to h-h-haunt us!" Another round of laughter left the blonde.

"Damn I hate g-g-g-ghosts too! Shit! You'd better run Teme, you just pissed on a pissed off, dead Uchiha! Rest in peace my little 'fluff-n-stuff'! Maybe you can be ghosts together!"

More raucous laughter escaped into the hall, however it was soon replaced with an almost desperate sobbing with the occasional hysterical giggle thrown in as Naruto slid down the wall. As a ninja he should be able to react well to surprising situations, but this whole night had topped the cake._'These Uchiha's are going to be the death of me! Even Akira's already almost given me a heart attack. What is _with _this family?'_ Taking pity on the half-crying, half-laughing youth perched against the wall, and the beyond pale form of his brother, the visitor spoke.

"Hello Outoto, Naruto-kun. I see you aren't fighting each other, that's good, that's good." Itachi nodded a bit to himself.

"I had pictured a much more violent meeting when I emerged but this is much better." He nodded to himself once again as he looked around, taking in his surroundings.

Sasuke, having finally gotten over the initial shock of seeing his dead brother's half corporeal form, made his way closer towards his aniki. With one arm raised in front of him, his index finger extended, he gingerly poked Itachi in the arm. When he met resistance, his hand refraining from going through, he jumped slightly and scooted back, grabbing Naruto up from the wall and placing him in front of him as a shield.

"B-bastard! Wha-" Naruto was a little offended at Sasuke's actions, more than a little scared, and far beyond a little understanding. If he had killed his only living family and said family appeared once again, he'd want a body shield too.

"Shut up Dobe!" The raven grunted. "You! Itachi! Why are you here? ...KAI!... Shit! It's not a genjutsu. Didn't you haunt me enough when you were alive? What were you doing in my Naruto? Asshole! Go away! Shoo!" Sasuke pulled some salt out of a random pocket and began throwing it at the elder Uchiha.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had thought that this couldn't possibly get any more frightening than it currently was. Both were proven wrong however when Itachi chuckled as flecks of salt bounced off him. Uchiha Itachi actually _chuckled_. Though meant to be a sign of amusement, the two shinobi heard only death. The hairs on the backs of their necks and their arms stood on end. A shiver far different from those felt earlier made its way simultaneously down their backs. They were frozen in place as Itachi made his way over towards them. _'At least he's not floating...' _Naruto absently thought, his brain frozen and unable to send the proper signals to the rest of his body, namely the ones that said to run like hell. Sasuke, too, had only one thought running through his head. _'Shit! I'm out of salt!'_

"Haunt you? Foolish little brother, I'm not a ghost. I'm an imprint I left in Naruto-kun there. Though it was originally a genjutsu power I instilled within him before our last encounter, Sasuke, it seems Naruto-kun's body has seen fit to alter that slightly, I'm far more substantial than I had anticipated. Hmm... I wonder if it's an after effect of the Kyuubi? No matter." Itachi explained, flicking a strand of hair over his shoulder and examining his cuticles.

"Huh? Power you instilled in me? What are yo-... Ohhhhh, right, yeah, the crow, right. I had forgotten all about that!" Naruto seemed much more comfortable with the situation now, however Sasuke on the other hand, was still in shock and denial.

"Lies! I killed you dammit! I stabbed you, you poked me in the god damn forehead again, and then you DIED!" Sasuke was all but screaming now.

"Very good, foolish little brother. That is, indeed, what happened, I'm sure. I wouldn't know, seeing as how I'm an imprint before all of that happened, though that was the general plan. But before you and I met, I met with Naruto-kun while he was chasing you around and shared a bit of myself with him to... put a damper, let's say, on the future fight I had anticipated you two having. I must say, Outoto, I'm rather pleased to see you here, in Konoha I'm guessing, and with Naruto-kun to boot. Though it seems I interrupted something, hmmm?"

"Sasuke, really, what he's saying is true... well I suppose it is, most of it is anyways. I met him in the woods, I suppose right before you two had your fight. He made this crow fly down my throat. It was sooooo gross! Really Weasel-san couldn't you have done it differently?" Naruto shook his head towards Itachi, deftly ignoring the older Uchiha's last statement as well as the burning he felt in his blushing cheeks.

The blonde shrugged his shoulders when he received a slightly offended look for the use of 'Weasel' and started to make his way down the hall towards the kitchen, after prying Sasuke's hands off of his shirt. Sasuke watched the blonde make his way down the hallway feeling slightly dejected and abandoned. If he weren't an Uchiha, he would be whimpering. A sense of relief flooded through him though, as he realized that it wasn't Itachi that Naruto wanted, well probably gauging from the way he reacted to his brother just moments before and the utterance of his name had just been an after affect of his creepy aniki and Naruto had just been startled to see him there. A smirk made its way across pale lips.

"Well whatever, you're dead. The genjutsu or whatever you are now isn't needed, so er... you can 'poof' away now. Not that it's not great to see you... I think... but..." _'Leave dammit! My dobe needs pinned against the nearest surface and I'm not into having my brother watch.'_

"My, my Outoto, a little impatient aren't we? If I remember correctly, you didn't like the jinchuuriki before did you? I must say I'm glad things have gone the way they have. I was almost positive that you'd go all Avenger on the village. Seems that that kyuubi boy had more of an influence on you than I thought. Perhaps I should have listened to him when he was screaming at me that day in the woods." Itachi looked pensive for a moment, but soon brushed is thoughts away with the swat of his hand, as if the movement would physically move the thoughts aside. "However, I suppose you are right, outoto. If I'm not needed, I shall indeed 'poof'."

Itachi closed his eyes, concentrating on releasing the chakra that made up his existence. With his eyes closed and his brows furrowed in concentration, he did not see the suddenly torn expression on his younger siblings face. Sasuke _really _wanted Itachi to just leave, there were matters at hand that needed his immediate attention after all. Still, he caught himself wishing for a moment that Itachi didn't have to leave, that he could stay and be a part of their lives, that he would never run out of chakra and disappear, and that he could have his brother back, even in this form. His face was once again devoid of his inner turmoil when Itachi opened his eyes once again, his aniki wearing a very confused expression openly on his face.

"I can't 'poof'." Itachi muttered.

"Eh? What do you mean you can't 'poof'? Just release the chakra."

"Yes, thank you, oh wise foolish little brother." Itachi rolled his eyes. "It won't release. I can't do anything. What the hell did that brat do to me? Why can't I 'poof'?"

"You've got to be kidding me. Are you retarded? Has being made into some weird genjutsu-ghost hybrid made you loose your genius?" Sasuke snorted. "I knew you weren't all that great. The almighty Uchiha Itachi, can't even release his own technique. 'Poofing' is 'poofing'. It's academy stuff... just fucking 'poof' already!"

There was a snort behind the Uchiha's and they both turned. Naruto stood near the entrance to the hallway, tea in hand, grinning at the boys in front of him like it was Christmas morning. Naruto was having the time of his life now that he had calmed down. Seeing the two, supposedly crazy and incredibly dangerous, shinobi in front of him arguing was really quite entertaining.

"Face it boys," Naruto gave them a mischievous grin and a wink, "there's no need to argue, you're both poofs."

He chuckled at how quickly the Uchiha brothers had forgotten each other and their problem and focused in on him. Sasuke quickly returned his attention to the object of his affections. Object of affection or not, the raven did not want to be called a "poof". Growling low in his throat he threw a glare towards the immune blonde and raised his middle finger towards him.

"Poof this, Dobe."

"Sure, if that's what you're into bastard."

Naruto only smirked at Sasuke's raised eyebrow. He brought his hand together behind his back, forming seals. He didn't want the Uchiha's to Sharingan this. What fun would that be? With a whispered, "Ero No Jutsu", Sasuke's hand was covered in smoke. Much to Sasuke's horror, not only his hand but his entire forearm as well were covered in thick white billowing clouds of smoke, and it felt rather strange, his fingers and wrist unable to move properly.

"Poof!" Naruto giggled.

When the clouds finally dissipated there was a rather aghast and red Sasuke with a rather phallic right arm. Both Naruto and Itachi burst out in raucous laughter. The youngest Uchiha brother simply stared, mouth agape, at his altered appendage. _'Who in the hell had taught his dobe such a vulgar jutsu? Ohhh... more importantly... What had his dobe been _doing _with this jutsu?' _

"It is a rather accurate representation Naruto-kun. I'm almost impressed I think." Itachi gasped out, while trying to calm his laughter.

"Thanks, Weasel-san!" Naruto, used to laughing far more than the happiness depraved Uchiha had managed to get his amusement at his friends predicament under a control of sorts, though the occasional chuckle or giggle couldn't be hidden completely.

"How'd you do that Dobe?" Sasuke demanded. "You didn't even touch me to channel your chakra into me!"

"Magic!"

"Hn, Dobe. Change it back. Now. Itachi, stop laughing. Uchiha's do not laugh like that." Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, his voice was dark and low. Sasuke _did not _like being laughed at, at all.

"Yeah, yeah bastard Teme. Don't go all avenger mode. And as for Itachi, he's dead, no offense Weasel-san. I don't think the almighty 'Laws of the Uchiha' apply to him anymore."

Naruto rolled his eyes and released his jutsu. A cry from Akira's bedroom saved Naruto from having to hear the many threats that were sure to come his way from his friend for his little prank as soon as Sasuke got over the relief he felt, his arm back to normal.

"I've got him. And I have no idea what's up with Itachi not 'poofing'. Your words not mine. Maybe it's cause he's dead and has no where to poof back to, who knows?" And with that Naruto went in to tend to a crying Akira.

The Uchiha siblings turned to look at each other. Itachi had a good natured smile playing across his features, something Sasuke hadn't seen in over a decade, something he thought he'd never see again. Seeing his brother's gaze shift to a nostalgic aire, Itachi brought his index and middle finger together, and none to gently poked his outoto in the forehead, immediately bringing a pouting scowl to Sasuke's face.

"Dammit! I hate it when you do that." The younger raven gently ran a finger over the abused spot.

"Thus the reason I do it, Outoto." Itachi smirked. Then a thought occurred to him, "Who was that crying Sasuke?"

The pout adorning Sasuke's face immediately vanished only to be replaced by a superior smirk, and his dark aura disappeared. Itachi noticed the instantaneous change and his curiosity only grew. Sasuke raised a finger to his lips, signaling Itachi to be quiet and then motioned for him to follow.

Upon reaching the doorway and peering around his brother, the eldest Uchiha froze. An old crib adorned with an Uchiha fan, he remembered it being his once, was placed against the far wall. Naruto sat in a rocking chair near the crib, gently rocking and whispering comforting words to a wrapped up bundle he held in his arms, a bottle in his hand.

"Aniki," Sasuke whispered, "I'd like you to meet my family, our family."

"You mean... how did... I mean he's a...Kyuubi?" Itachi choked out in a hushed whisper. He was flabbergasted. Sasuke raised a questioning eyebrow towards his sibling. "I mean, Naruto... how'd you knock up Naruto?" Sasuke let an amused smile play over his lips.

"Aniki, Naruto's a guy, guy's can't have children and besides we haven't even had sex yet. Awe did my poor brother meet his end before he even learned about the birds and the bees?" Sasuke smirked. "I artificially inseminated a women, whom died giving birth. Though, the thought of Naruto being able to give birth due to the Kyuubi is an intriguing one. Perhaps we'll have to test that out later. We'll need practice, lots and lots of practice making children." It was then that Naruto noticed the brother's in the door and he smiled, beckoning them closer.

"Aniki, I'd like you to meet the second living Uchiha, my son, your nephew, Uchiha Akira."

Naruto pulled the blanket down, exposing Akira to the scrutinizing gaze of his uncle. As Itachi gazed down at the infant in the blonde's arms, he felt a surge of emotion run through him. He had thought he would never feel such things again, especially given his current state, and as such was not prepared to deal with them. Seeing the next generation of Uchiha, when he had killed all the previous ones, tore something deep inside of him. He was so proud of his brother, whom had overcome his hatred despite everything he had put him through. Looking towards him now and seeing the deep seated contentment upon his face as he gazed at his family, Itachi's eyes welled up with tears. He stood slightly behind Sasuke, gripping his shoulder.

"You've done well, Outoto." One more squeeze to Sasuke's shoulder, then Itachi left the room, trying to hide his emotional state.

Sasuke hadn't noticed his brother's distress, however, Naruto had. The blonde privately rolled his eyes, and stood to place Akira in his crib once again. As they followed the elder Uchiha up the stairs and saw him pacing around the living room, Sasuke shot his blonde friend a questioning glance. Naruto just shook his head and gestured for him to sit on the couch.

"Aniki."

"..."

"Aniki!"

"..."

"Itachi!"

"Huh? Oh sorry, sorry." Itachi finally replied, taking a seat in the chair opposite the two younger shinobi.

"Something wrong, Aniki?" Sasuke questioned with a curious glance.

"No, no, of course no-"

"Sasuke doesn't hate you Weasel-san."

The raven brothers turned their head sharply towards Naruto. The blonde simply sat there with a small smile on his face. By now he had become immune to the Uchiha Death Glare, even if it was doubled. He knew it was something that the brothers didn't want to bring up or acknowledge all together. _'Well screw that!'_

"I don't?"

"He doesn't?"

"Nope. In fact, he _loves_ you."

"I do?"

"He does?"

"Yup."

"Oh."

"Oh."

"Mmm hmmm." Naruto couldn't help but snicker at the bewildered and amazed looks on the faces of the brothers before him.

"Ugh, shit." Sasuke groaned. "I hate it when you're right. If you gloat I swear I'll Chidori your ass."

"Y-you don't hate me?" It was barely above a whisper but Sasuke caught it, and sighed.

"No, the Dobe's right, Aniki. I don't hate you."

"Oh. Do you hate me Naruto?"

"Nope!"

"But I tried to capture you for Akatsuki."

Naruto shrugged, "So? It doesn't matter. I don't hate anyone." Again the Uchiha brothers looked at Naruto in awe and a bit of disbelief, as if he had declared he were a cucumber.

"Bullshit." Sasuke muttered with a dark voice. "How can you, of all people, not hate anyone?"

"Eh?" Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"Dobe, this village has treated you like shit for years! How can you not hate them when they spat and threw things at you? When they called you monster and shunned you from everything? How can you not hate me? When I-" As Sasuke spoke his voice grew louder and louder. His body seemed compelled to touch the blonde, shake him, as if to wake him from his naive stupor.

"Then, who do you hate Sasuke?" Naruto interrupted.

"I hate them all!" Sasuke all but screamed.

"Right. You are full of hate. Teme, do you regret killing Itachi?" The blonde asked, narrowing his eyes.

Sasuke was silent. He knew the dobe knew that he did. Naruto knew him better than anyone, infuriating as that could be at times.

"Do you regret shoving your fist through my chest? Trying to kill me who knows how many times?"

Sasuke tightened his grip on Naruto's shoulders for a moment, before releasing him and slumping back into the couch.

"Hn."

"Exactly. As far as I've seen, hate only brings sadness and regret. I've been sad enough in my life, thanks, and I don't want to regret anything. That stuff is in the past. I don't care that the villagers used to shun me. Sure it sucked, but they acknowledge me now. I've worked hard to make sure that happened."

Naruto rose from his seat and moved to straddle Sasuke. He grabbed one of the raven's long bangs in each hand and put their foreheads together. He stared straight into his best friends eyes, imploring him silently to listen to him. The blonde didn't need to worry about that however. With the dobe straddling him, his breath fanning over his face, the blonde had Sasuke's undivided attention. Sasuke placed his hands on Naruto's hips, his thumb rubbing small circles over a bit of exposed flesh.

"Hn."

"I don't mind that you tried to kill me, bastard. I forgave you almost instantly. I wouldn't have chased you down time and time again, demanding you come back home, if I hated you. Because of you, I've become who I am today. You've made me so much stronger. I could never hate you, baka."

"Why?" Sasuke whispered, his voice slightly trembling.

The raven knew his eyes were wide, and that his fingertips would be white with the force he was using to grip the slender hips before him. He was showing a vulnerability that he hated. He couldn't help it though, Uchiha or not. He could never help showing Naruto sides of himself that he never wanted to. The blonde just seemed to pull them out of him, however he pleased. Naruto smiled and rolled his eyes.

"Baka, Teme." He closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them again, Sasuke's breath hitched.

"I love you, Sasuke."

The raven froze. _'Eh? What did he just say? Eh? What? I think I misheard. Right? Ehhh?' _

"-me."

Sasuke could feel his heart beating furiously in his chest, adrenaline running through his veins.

"-uke."

His breath was coming in short, quiet gasps, his ears were ringing.

"-suke!"

He became acutely aware of every place his body met the dobe's as Naruto molded their bodies together.

"Ass."

And he was pretty fucking sure that that was the dobe's tongue slowly licking the seam of his lips. _'What?'_ Sasuke snapped out of his daze, focusing once again on the blonde in his lap, who was indeed licking him.

"Welcome back. Miss me?" The blonde snickered, snapping away any restraint the raven might have had.

"Dobe. Me too. I love you." Sasuke growled out before smashing his mouth together with his blue eyed savior.

Before things could get too heated, before Sasuke could plunder the addictingly sweet cavern in front of him, they were interrupted by a small cough.

"Sorry to interrupt but _this_," Itachi held up Teme the cat by the scruff of his neck, "is coming with me. Pissing on me the first time was... tolerable. However this time, this little shit it mine." Itachi let out a cackle. "Come minion, it's time I teach you manners!"

"Nyaa! Nyaa!"

Naruto jumped off of Sasuke, quick as lightning, and began chasing after Itachi as he left the room.

"Waaaaait, Weasel-san! Teme, nooo!"

For the past week the Uchiha family, Naruto included, had been keeping to themselves. With an ex-nuke-nin, another that was supposed to be dead, and a newborn baby all residing in the sole house on the Uchiha property, no one desired to break away from their little slice of utopia, to face the harsh realities that drove the world outside. All of the members of the household were currently outside in the garden taking advantage of the beautiful day. The weather was perfect, insects were serenading them with their song, and a calming breeze would kick up every now and then, making sure they were never too warm. Naruto was currently bent over one of many tomato plants, combating the menace known as weeds. Sasuke was content just watching the blonde shake his hips ever so slightly as he leaned further in, while silently snickering at the orange flower hair clips Naruto had adorning his hair. Things that were apparently useless, as tufts of blonde silk continually fell into blue eyes. Feeling the raven's eyes on his ass, the kyuubi holder huffed and turned around, shooting as tough a glare as he could muster towards his raven friend. Sasuke was unaffected, to say the least.

"Argh! Teme! Help me pull these weeds! You're the one who eats more tomatoes than anyone else on the face of the planet!"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, reaching around Naruto to pluck a ripe fruit from the vine before sitting back in his previous position, ready to indulge in his favorite food.

"Ugh, fine. But you're going to burn, you lazy porcelain bastard. Go sit under the tree with Akira."

"No. Tomatoes are amazing." The raven sighed, staring down at the amazing red wonder in his hand.

"Huh? Well that was random. Besides, tomatoes don't have anything on ramen!"

"Hn. Usuratonkachi. Tomatoes are packed with a multitude of vitamins and minerals. They also contain lycopene."

"Lyco-what?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Lycopene, Dobe. The reason I don't burn. It helps prevent sunburns. The only thing ramen will do for you is give you a sodium induced heart attack."

Naruto shot up from his cowering position over the plants around him, pointing a finger in the raven's face and all but screamed, "Bastard! Don't you dare besmirch the name of Ramen!"

Again, Sasuke rolled his eyes before glancing over at his son, who lay sleeping on a blanket under a tree a few feet away. Seeing that Akira was fine and content, he let his eyes wonder towards his brother, who was currently hunched over Teme. Itachi didn't seem perturbed by the fact that he was talking to a cat, not even trying to lower his voice, and that the cat was seemingly responding to his instructions with small nods of the head.

"Itachi's corrupting your devil spawn, Dobe." Sasuke smirked.

Naruto just snickered and shrugged his shoulders. "It's not me who they're plotting against." Both boys silently agreed to watch the spectacle before them.

"First! You must learn all of his attacks. You should always know all you can about your enemy." Itachi began. Upon seeing the cat nod, he continued.

"He has two seals, one on each wrist, from which he can summon an indefinite amount of shuriken."

The eldest raven pointed towards the inside of his wrists, before laying a shuriken between them. Once again Teme nodded, and this time seemed to sport a glare as well. He remembered those seals well from their first encounter.

"I see. You've already seen this. I'm surprised you lived. All the more reason you're fit to be my minion." Itachi nodded to himself.

If cats could roll their eyes, Teme would have. _'More like I don't have a choice... you're scarier than __shit!'_

"He also has several jutsu, but I don't think Naruto will allow him to use those against you. However you must watch out for his Sharingan or your toast."

Again, Teme remembered the spinning red eyes of death, nodded his understanding. "Nyaa."

"I agree. Now then, this brings us to traps. The more we anger him, the more he'll retaliate. Traps will be a useful tool for him to utilize, and one we'll have the most difficulty with."

When Teme laid down, his ears back, and let out a hiss, he was met with a smack to the head.

"Don't you back talk me! This is important! Therefor, we will train you. You will learn to predict your enemies movements, read the surrounding terrain and recognize how to utilize it to your advantage. We will hone your body into something you've only ever dreamed of. And when you're prepared, and the right time presents itself, we strike!" Itachi raised up onto his knees, a look of determination and passion shining through his eyes.

Teme too, stood up and pawed the ground once. "Nyaa!"

"I can hear you, you know." Sasuke called out, but was deftly ignored.

"Now, there are two rules, minion, that must never, under any circumstances, be broken." Itachi glared towards the small beast in front of him.

"N-nyaa...?"

"One! You must never harm any member of the family, save Sasuke, and even when attacking him, you must never strike to kill."

_'Damn!'_ Teme thought. "Nyaa."

"Good. Two! You must protect every member of this family, including Sasuke."

_'Wait... what? To hell with that! Who does this guy think he is?' _The cat scoffed to himself. "Nya-"

"Silence Minion!" Itachi screamed. "There is no room for discussion! These rules are absolute! Break them, and you will be subjected to a hell even your worst nightmares wouldn't be able to compare to. Do I make myself clear?"

The poor feline was trembling, he dared not defy the man before him. He valued his life. "N-n-n-nya-ya."

Itachi grinned. "Excellent! Don't worry about anyone else though. They're all below us, as far as I'm concerned. You are an Uchiha now, you are a cut above the rest. Remember that." Itachi stood. "Come minion! Your training begins!"

Teme jumped up to Itachi's shoulder, careful not to dig his claws into the flesh. With a quick nod towards his baby brother and the blonde, he was off, making his way to the training grounds Naruto had built on the property. Staring after them, Sasuke couldn't help but comment.

"You know, if they weren't plotting my demise, I'd be laughing my ass off watching my brother have a conversation with a cat."

The raven shook his head. Hearing a snort come from behind him, he turned his attention once again towards his blonde. Naruto was currently bent over the garden plants, almost looking as if he had taken up his weeding once again. However the uncontrollable shaking of his entire upper body gave away his restrained laughter. When they heard a small explosion and a slightly evil cackle, Sasuke couldn't help it, he too started laughing. He was joined by Naruto once the blonde had deemed it safe to let his peals of laughter out.

"Wow. Uchiha Sasuke is laughing. What'd I miss?"

Naruto rocketed up from his position on the garden floor, letting out a girly yelp. This only caused Sasuke to laugh even harder. Naruto glared at the raven, then turned his attention to the newcomer.

"Sakura-chan! Nothing much, just another Uchiha plan for world domination."

Sakura looked at the still chuckling Sasuke, her eye brow raised.

Naruto smirked. "Nope! Wrong Uchiha."

Now Sakura was definitely confused. "Huh?"

Both boys were saved from having to explain however, as they all heard a rustling coming from the direction of the training grounds.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear."

Sakura was just about to demand they tell her what in the hell was going on exactly when Itachi emerged from the brush, an unconscious and slightly singed cat hanging by the tail in his right hand.

"Oi! Blondie! I forgot weapons. Where are they?" Itachi asked, ignoring the beyond pale, pink headed woman.

"What in the hell did you do to my cat, Weasel?" The blonde shrieked.

Itachi, still holding the cat by it's tail, brought it up to eye level, before shrugging and replying, "Training."

Sakura was close to hyperventilating, she could feel it. Blackness was encroaching on her, blocking out the sides of her vision.

"O-o-okay, I don't know what's g-g-going on here. Tsunade wants to see N-n-na-naruto, Sasuke, and Akira-a in her office. Now that I've told you, I'm going to pass out."

The men watched as Sakura gave her final message, before her eyes began to flutter closed, and she face-planted into the ground. They each let out a small chuckle.

"How amusing." Itachi had never had quite that effect on someone before.

"Think we should have caught her?" Sasuke asked. Not that he really wanted to, but it seemed the appropriate thing to do.

Naruto snickered. "Naw. Come on. I'll get her. Sasuke, you grab Akira. Don't forget his diaper bag. Weasel-san, you should probably come too, but hide your face. We don't need to send the village into a panic."

Neither Uchiha refused the blonde and simply replied with their customary, "Hn."

Tsunade heard the knock at her door. Quickly hiding her sake, she called for the arrival to enter. Upon seeing Naruto and his entourage, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, it's just you shits. Well, come in."

She brought her sake back out and poured herself another cup. After drinking the entire cup in one swallow, she looked over the group standing before her. _'What in the hell is going on? Kami, oh Kami, why can't anything be easy with this lot?'_

"Alright, what happened to Sakura? And who in the hell is that?" The Hokage demanded, eying her passed out student, and a mysterious man behind her gaki and the Uchiha.

"Don't worry Baa-chan! Sakura-chan just fainted. I figured she'd piss herself when it happened. Lucky for her, she didn't. There is no way I would have carried her here if she did." Naruto gently laid the pinkette on the couch that occupied a corner of Tsunade's office. "As for why... well that's where he comes in." The blonde continued, gesturing to Itachi behind him. "Before I tell you, though, who he is, you've got to promise not to freak out. It's not exactly what you think."

Tsunade's interest had been peaked. Who could cause Sakura to faint? Why would Naruto make her promise something like that? She looked towards Sasuke, seeing the same indifferent look as always on his face. She ran her gaze over the mystery man. He stood a few inches taller than the other two shinobi and was covered in a black cloak, the hood raised up, concealing his features. Intriguing indeed.

"Fine. Reveal yourself." The Hokage once again demanded.

Naruto hesitated a moment before nodding towards Itachi. The eldest Uchiha slowly reached back and pushed his hood down, revealing his face to the village leader. He could see her whole body tense up as she turned her intense gaze towards Sasuke.

"I thought you killed him."

Sasuke looked indignant and scowled. "I did."

"Obviously not." Tsunade snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Pardon me, Hokage-sama. But Sasuke did, in fact, kill me." Itachi bowed slightly.

Tsunade could feel a headache coming on. She poured herself another shot and downed it immediately before once again demanding answers. "Explain."

"So there you have it." The blonde chuckled, unconsciously bringing his hand back to the nape of his neck, rubbing it up and down lightly.

Tsunade took a moment to digest the information before continuing. "How can I be sure you aren't a threat to the village? Not to mention to Sasuke and Naruto?"

"You have nothing to fear. Not only do I have no desire to cause anyone harm, I have no chakra to speak of. I cannot even use the Sharingan."

It was then that the hokage finally noticed the still unconscious cat that Itachi still held by the tail. "I see cats do not fall into the safe category."

"This is my minion," Itachi raised his hand, showing her the cat. "He had a hard five minutes of training today. He's my ally in fighting the darkness of the Uchiha."

"Come again...?"

"He means me. They've teamed up to torture me." Sasuke grunted.

The blonde haired woman waved her hand dismissivly. "Whatever, I'm too old for this shit. As long as no one ends up dead, it's fine. I don't need anymore paperwork. Speaking of paperwork... Sasuke."

"Hn."

Tsunade rolled her eyes at the Uchiha. "Disrespectful ass. How's everything with Akira?" She asked as she pulled a file from the stack in front of her.

"He's fine." The raven grunted.

Tsunade stood and came around her desk, motioning for Sasuke to unwrap the blanket secured around the infant. "Lift up his shirt so I can do a quick check up." As soon as he revealed his son's bare chest, green chakra enveloped the healer's hand. When she began her inspection, her hand meeting bare skin, Akira awoke, glaring at whatever dared to wake him. "Pfft this kid's only a week old and already he's got the Uchiha glare down pact."

Naruto snorted. "Of course. It comes hardwired."

Sasuke smirked at his blonde. "Hn. You love it."

"Everything looks great." Tsunade informed them as she made a few notes in her file.

"Hn."

"Now onto other business. Yamato has arrived back earlier than we had anticipated. He is available tomorrow to build you your own home."

"That won't be necessary." Sasuke informed her. Like hell he was moving away from his Dobe.

Tsunade looked from Sasuke to Naruto. Seeing no rebuttal to the ravens declaration she continued. "I see. Well then, moving on. How are you Sasuke? Physically?"

All three men in the room raised an eyebrow. "...Fine..."

The blonde hokage smiled. "Excellent. The council has decided to issue you your aptitude test tomorrow. Prepare yourself. At 8AM you are to come to the designated area outside the South gate of the village. There will be a stadium erected, you can't miss it."

"Stadium, Baa-chan?"

"Exactly. Your test will be simple, Uchiha. You are to spar against one of our top shinobi, taking special care to demonstrate all of your skills."

Sasuke was shocked but felt excitement scream through him at the prospect of a good match. "Hn. Who will I be up against? And what's the stadium for?"

Tsunade let a genuine smile form over her lips. "You'll be up against Naruto, of course. And the stadium is for the spectators."

Naruto too was feeling the beginning tingles of expectancy as he heard he was to be the one to fight the bastard. "Spectators?"

Tsunade's smile morphed into an evil grin. "Of course! It's going to be one hell of a show! Don't worry. The spectators will be inside of a barrier jutsu, so there will be no danger of them getting hurt. I shouldn't have to tell you, but try not to kill each other."

"Hn." Sasuke couldn't keep the excitement out of his voice. "What about Akira?"

Sakura had just woken up and had heard the last bit of their conversation. "Um... If you don't mind, I'll watch him during your match tomorrow."

Tsunade looked towards Sasuke who nodded. "Excellent. So everything's all settled then."

Sakura shot up from the couch with a gasp. "No! Shishou! There's an emergency! There's an intruder in the village!"

The Hokage took another sip of her sake. "Oh?"

"Hai, Shishou! I'm not sure of the details, but I witnessed Uchiha Itachi entering the Uchiha residence."

Tsunade couldn't conceal her amused look. "Is that so?"

Itachi cleared his throat, drawing Sakura's attention to himself. As soon as she saw him, she screamed, pointed, and then yet again promptly fainted, landing face first on the office floor. Four sighs and three simultaneous voices rang out.

"Useless Bitch."

Sometimes Tsunade couldn't help but agree.

Murmurs were everywhere. If one listened hard enough, they would hear the excitement, the trepidation, and the suspense in all of the voices present reverberating off of the towering stadium walls. The stadium itself was massive, taking up a large portion of the once bare field. Uchiha Sasuke's ability trial had drawn a huge portion of the citizens of Konoha out to see the event, having found a small card upon their doorstep.

_Citizen of Konoha, _

_I am happy to announce that our very own Uzumaki Naruto has retrieved one, Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha-san has been given a full pardon. If you don't like this, come and see me, I'm sure we can change your mind. (We are not responsible for any injuries you may sustain.) Today at 8 AM, we will be holding Uchiha-san's aptitude test. (Come watch a couple gaki's beat the crap out of each other.) If you are interested in attending, please arrive early, as seating will fill up fast. The event will be held at the newly erected stadium just outside the South gate of the village. _

_Godaime Hokage,_

_Tsunade_

No one had seen the missing Uchiha since he had disappeared several years ago, and the gossip was flying about faster than Choji could eat. It was just a few minutes before they were scheduled to begin, and Sakura, as well as Sai, were being berated by questions from the rest of the group once known as the Konoha Rookie 9.

"What's going on? When did Naruto bring Sasuke back?"

"Who's the youthful baby, Sakura-chan?"

"Why didn't Naruto tell us?"

"What's going on between Naruto and Sasuke?"

Sakura opened her mouth, ready to tell them all to shut up and that they were scaring the baby, when Tsunade's amplified voice rang out, silencing everyone. Once the busty blonde leader standing at the base of the stands had the crowd's attention, she began.

"Villagers of Konoha! Thank you all for coming! And a special thanks to Yamato-taicho for once again lending us his talents and building this brand new stadium. As you all know, we have a special treat for you today. What you didn't know is that Naruto will be Sasuke's opponent!" A loud wave of cheers and cat calls came from the crowd.

"Kick his ass Naruto!"

"Sasuke-kun! Marry me Sasuke-kun! I'll bear your babies!"

"Five hundred yen says Sasuke looses."

"No way! I'll take that bet! Naruto's going down."

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade glared at her charges while flicking a blonde pigtail over her shoulder. "Now, as I was saying... Naruto has brought Sasuke home to Konoha, and he as been reinstated as a shinobi of this village."

More cheers and a couple of boo's erupted once again from the excited audience. Tsunade was irritated. Didn't any of her villagers know when to shut up? She jumped to the ground, gathered chakra in her fist and vented her frustrations into the earth, her enormous strength creating a massive crater at her feet. The crowd was immediately silenced.

"That's what I thought. Now, what you are about to witness is the Uchiha gaki's assessment test. This means he will be demonstrating his fighting style and his various jutsu."

Once again murmurs broke throughout the crowd. The Godaime Hokage sighed, rubbing her forehead in soothing circles.

"Fine, fine. Uncultured lot! Just sit down, shut up, and watch Naruto and Sasuke go at it."

Above the rest of the cheers, boos, and other various reactions, one could be heard above all others.

"Hell yeah! I'll watch 'em go at it!" Ino screamed. "Pound his ass, Sasuke!"

Sasuke and Naruto were standing out of view, waiting to come out. However, when Naruto heard Ino's taunt, he couldn't remain still and ran out onto the field they'd be battling on.

"Sh-shut up, Ino!" Naruto screamed at the blonde.

"Hn, Dobe. I see Ino's gotten loads smarter." Sasuke remarked, coming to stand beside the blonde. He could tell his best friend was nervous and he knew there was only one way to get rid of it, piss him off.

"Ehhhh?" Naruto was confused. Sasuke had to be being sarcastic, right? Ino was as ditzy as they came, some of his plants seemed to have more intelligence than the blonde haired, blue eyed girl.

"She knew it'd be _me_ pounding _your_ ass." The raven smirked.

Naruto's face was suddenly covered in a furious blush. "T-teme!"

"Hn." Sasuke began walking to his side of the field, but not before slapping his blonde's ass and giving it a little squeeze.

"Bastard!" And the blonde's nervousness was gone. He punched the raven's shoulder, secretly placing a seal on him.

Laughter, cries of outrage and a few sobs broke out from the crowd. The Godaime and three anonymous ANBU began weaving the seals necessary to create the barrier to protect those who came to watch. Once it was in place, and the fighters were in position, a deafening "BEGIN" rang out and filled the air.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, all traces of his previous blush gone. Now there was just the determined look in his eye that Sasuke adored. The blonde threw a kunai into the ground at his feet. He focused his chakra into the seal he put on Sasuke, and using his father's Hirashin no Jutsu, appeared directly in front of his opponent. The raven hadn't expected the blonde to appear before him so quickly and Naruto used his split second hesitation to his advantage. He quickly turned around and pressed his ass into Sasuke's hips with a grinding motion, relishing in the quiver it sent up his spine.

"So you wanna pound my ass, Sasuke-bastard?" The blonde asked, his voice dark and sultry.

Naruto snickered to himself as he heard a grunt and felt a slight thrust behind him. Before Sasuke could properly retaliate, he once again used his father's technique to teleport himself back to the kunai he had thrown into the ground. A glaring Sasuke took one step towards Naruto before his glare transformed into a smirk. He quickly began forming seals, his hands a blur to the untrained eye; rat, tiger, dog, ox, rabbit, tiger.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu!"

The raven brought his hand to his mouth, ready to release his jutsu. As fire ball after fireball shot out, he used the seals on his wrists to hide shuriken in the flames. At first, the multitude of chakra flames appeared to head out in random directions, before they turned and honed in on Naruto. As the last shot left his mouth, Sasuke drew Kusanagi from it's sheath and charged his blonde opponent. Adrenaline and excitement already flowing free and fast in their veins.

As Naruto saw the fire and Sasuke's charge, he grinned and created two shadow clones to distract Sasuke; he only needed a few seconds while he dealt with the jutsu screaming towards him. The blonde closed his eyes and released one of his clones he now always kept at Myoboku, and felt the senjutsu chakra flow into him. He silently cursed himself for still needing sage mode to do this technique effectively as he concentrated on forming his jutsu. His eyes opened once again and flashes of pure chakra lit up the contours of his face.

"Futon: Rasenshuriken!"

Like Sasuke, the jinchuriki also hid a shuriken in his jutsu, and attached a wire to the weapon. Naruto threw his deadly jutsu, intercepting Sasuke's fireballs. As soon as wind chakra met fire, a huge firestorm erupted over the heads of the combatants. The blonde quickly pulled the wire connected to the enormous fireball, directing it toward the sky. Naruto knew that Sasuke was a master of lightening jutsu's and that this move might end up helping his raven opponent, as it was sure to help create a situation similar to a thunderstorm, but he didn't care. In fact, that was his plan, to help show off Sasuke's power. He wanted to see what his friend was really capable of.

As soon as the blonde shinobi let go of the wire, he immediately had to duck an incoming swing from Sasuke's katana aimed at is head. Seeing that he missed, as he figured he would, Sasuke sheathed his sword and activated his Sharingan. He began going through a series of taijutsu moves, all of which Naruto blocked. The moves themselves weren't important to Sasuke's plan, and he began putting more pressure on Naruto, trying to move around him towards his backside. Naruto, however, wasn't going to let it be that easy. There was no way he wanted to present his vulnerable backside to his opponent. After a few well executed feints and one connecting kick to the blonde's flank, despite Naruto's attempts at thwarting his plans, Sasuke managed to finally get behind his dobe. The raven gripped his friend's waist, properly returning the previous grind.

"Pound your ass, Dobe...? Hn, Definitely."

Naruto could feel the superior smirk on the Uchiha's lips as he spoke into his ear. A bolt of pleasure and lust once again ran up his spine. He spluttered a bit, before screaming, "Teme!" and used his Hirashin no Jutsu once again to escape the raven's grip. A dobe-less Sasuke glared at Naruto.

"Stop doing that."

Naruto let a cocky grin spread across is face before using the jutsu once again and appearing in front of Sasuke. It was now Naruto's turn to throw a few offensive taijutsu moves in. Knowing that Sasuke would soon read through his movements, he waited for the moment the Uchiha would counter. It didn't take long. Sasuke caught a kick meant to reach his face, and brought his fist back, intending to punch that damn grin off the blonde's face. Naruto kicked out and flipped backwards to avoid the blow.

As he charged the Uchiha once again, he switched to his Frog Kata. Naruto carefully controlled the amount of senjutsu chakra covering his body, too much and he would really harm Sasuke. Weakening his punch, he aimed for the Uchiha's face. He knew the Uchiha would dodge it, he had thrown it wide on purpose. And dodge it he did, or at least he thought he had. Naruto laughed at the surprised look on his bastard's face as he was thrown backwards, the chakra hitting it's target. Sasuke flipped himself mid air, landed on his feet, and slid several yards back. He sent a scathing glare towards the blonde who was still laughing at him.

Sasuke took a moment to observe the Naruto standing before him now. Once, long ago, the blonde hadn't been able to land a hit on him at all. Now, though, it appeared he could hit him without even hitting him. How was that possible? And what was with that jutsu he had used earlier? Definitely overkill just to blow some flames away. Seeing the strength the blonde now possessed caused a wave of awe to wash through him. It was then that the Uchiha noticed the orange accents around crystalline blue eyes.

_'What in the hell...? Shit, he's too strong... I'll have to use that... Dammit! Dobe, you had better be careful!' _He looked up towards the sky, sighing. _'Well, it is an aptitude test.' _Glancing back to Naruto while activating his Mangekyo Sharingan, he saw the blonde create twenty new clones, all in what he would later learn was Sage mode. _'He'll be able to dodge it right...?' _He eyed Naruto warily before sighing once again and closing his right eye.

"Amaterasu."

Black flames erupted in a circle five feet around Sasuke and eight feet high, obscuring Naruto from view. The flames were intense, and even though Sasuke didn't really pay any mind to the heat as he opened his eye, Naruto couldn't ignore it. He could just see bits of white and blue through the flickering flames, noting that Sasuke wasn't moving. Twenty blonde shinobi started screaming and kicking at the ground before shooting their heads up and pointing at the Uchiha.

"Dammit, Teme! That's not fair!" They yelled out together.

"Hn." Sasuke again closed an eye, though this time, it was his left. "Enton: Kagutsuchi."

The roaring flames of Amaterasu instantly froze and hardened into large and looming protective spikes around Sasuke, allowing Naruto to see more of the powerful Uchiha. The blonde sent his clones in to attack the spikes, a futile attempt as the whole field was covered in smoke. It only took a moment for the smoke to clear and when it did, Sasuke saw that Naruto was glaring at him. The raven raised an eyebrow.

"Did you seriously think that would work?"

When Naruto didn't respond Sasuke narrowed his eyes in suspicion. He concentrated his chakra into the palm of his hand, creating a slight Chidori. He concentrated further, forming the lightening into several senbon, before throwing them at Naruto. His aim was impeccable and the needles hit several of the blondes pressure points, rendering him immobile. As Naruto fell to the earth, Sasuke hesitated for only a moment before raising his hands to his chest, forming a tiger seal.

"Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu."

Three dragon heads made of intense, roaring flame burst forth and surged into the already volatile atmosphere. Everyone, save one smirking Uchiha, was tense, their bodies taunt with suspension. Many were wondering why he had aimed at the sky, but those who claimed to know anything about lightening chakra, or lightening in general knew. As the intense heat from Sasuke's Amaterasu and his katon created an updraft into the heavens, the air mixed and churned, moisture evaporated only to be condensed once more. Immense thunderclouds began to form, casting the entire area in shadow, and rain began pouring down in sheets. The Uchiha looked towards Naruto and grinned when he saw wild blue eyes.

"Don't worry, Dobe. I'll try not to kill you. But this is my aptitude test after all... You should feel privileged, this jutsu was originally meant only for Itachi." Naruto glared at Sasuke as the Uchiha threw a wink towards him. "Be careful, Dobe."

The raven tilted his head back, eyes closed as he relished in the rain running off of him in rivulets, drawing Naruto's gaze to the delicious paths they took over porcelain skin. If he was about to die, he was pleased that would be the last thing he were to see. Sasuke raised his left arm in the air. Naruto's heartbeat began hammering furiously in his chest. His breaths were short and shallow as he panted. He vaguely remembered Sasuke using a similar gesture once long ago, when he had first found him in Orochimaru's lair. Sasuke smiled to himself. _'See how strong I've become, Naruto.'_

"Kirin." It was barely above a whisper.

Lightening erupted in a giant font, only to be directed by Sasuke to the still immobile Naruto. A fraction of a second later, the area exploded, the shock wave itself enough to make the glowing barrier over the crowd dim and flicker. Dust and debris enshrouded the field, great plumes, evidence of the massive scale of destruction rising into the air. When the clouds cleared, there was only a deep crater where the blonde shinobi once lay. Curses, shouts, and terrified screams could be heard coming from the weakened barrier covering the attendees, and it appeared several of the crowd were trying to get out, wearing rather murderous looks on their faces.

Sasuke extinguished his Amaterasu, and leaned down, his arms braced against his knees. Panting with exhaustion, he squinted he eyes against the now bright again sky, and began looking for Naruto. After a few moments he was beginning to panic. He couldn't see any sign of Naruto. Just as he was about to scream out the blonde's name, he heard a tell-tale popping sound behind him.

"Bastard! Not trying to kill me my ass!" The blonde yelled while dusting off his black cargo pants. "If I hadn't teleported myself to you, and then henge'd as a rock while that smoke from my clones shielded your vision... I'd be INCINERATED! Asshole! It's a damn good thing my Sage mode kept that clone alive after you PARALYZED it! Who knows what would have happened? And damn you for being sexy while doing it!" Naruto smacked Sasuke in the back of his head, sending him stumbling forward a few feet, all while releasing the natural chakra stored in his body. After recovering, the raven glared at his best friend while rubbing the back of his head.

"Hn. I can't help my sexiness, and I wouldn't have done it if I didn't know it was a clone, Dobe."

"Hmph. Teme, like hell you knew-"

Both stopped their arguing as they felt an ominous aura and turned their attention toward the crowd. Tsunade was stomping her way over to the duo, the crowd now knowing Naruto was fine, was talking about the match excitedly.

"Damn you shitty brats! That's it! Test's over! You're both too freakishly strong and someone's going to loose a limb. If this continues one of you will end up dead, or dry humping the other."

The Godaime rolled her eyes and smacked both their heads. They knew she wasn't as mad as she'd like them to think, they were still standing after all, but Sasuke scowled at her none the less. He was tired of people smacking him already. His expression quickly changed to his trademark smirk, however, as the crowd seemed to come to a unanimous decision, and erupted with applause and cheers. Cries of 'Welcome back!', 'That's so hot!' and 'Wicked jutsu!' could be heard. Naruto grinned, glancing from Sasuke back to his hokage and shrugging his shoulders, all animosity forgotten.

"They seemed to like it."

"Hn."

"To hell with this, I need some sake." Tsunade shook her head as Naruto and Sasuke watched her walk away.

"Ne, Naruto. What was with the orang-" The raven began, curious about Naruto's new source of power.

"Oi! Blondie!"

Sasuke was interrupted by the one he remembered as Kiba. The raven sighed. _'Here they come...' _The Uchiha hadn't really wanted to see the rest of the kids he had grown up with. Hell, he couldn't stand most of them when he was younger. It was part of being with Naruto though, being surrounded by people, a very unfortunate part.

As Kiba and the rest of the gang started towards the two shinobi, Naruto broke out in a huge grin and ran to meet them. The grin, it seemed, was infectious, as the rest of the troupe donned mirroring expressions. Sasuke stayed back, watching as his dobe lit up the world around him. He took a moment to study his old companions, if he could really call them that.

Most looked the same as before, save for getting older. Their clothes were somewhat different, some of their hairstyles too. But overall, he could tell not much had changed, they were still the same people he had once known. Kiba was still loud, Shino was still silent. The girls were babbling and squealing about something or another, the only difference was Hinata, whom seemed to talk much more and wasn't going into 'shock mode' around Naruto. _'Hn. Good, saves me from have to deal with the dobe when he gets pissed after I threaten to Chidori her.' _Choji was still eating and Shikamaru was still napping, though now he could do it while standing up and walking apparently. Lee was still shouting youthful declarations and Neji was trying to embody the 'strong silent type'. As they came closer and closer, their excitement morphed into something more sinister. Their jubilant exclamations turned into mischievous whispers.

When they finally reached him, Sasuke immediately took Akira from Sakura's arms. He quickly glanced over him, making sure he was fine after being with the pinkette for so long. Ignoring the 'Awwwwws' from the girls, he retrieved a bottle from the diaper bag and began feeding his son. He shot a glare towards Sakura, silently asking why is son wasn't fed.

"Don't give me that look, Sasuke. He didn't even cry! I didn't know he was hungry!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Hn."

"Oi! Ass! What was that insane jutsu you did? Did you guys see that? He shot freaking lightening out of the sky! Wicked man, wicked."

Sasuke's glare intensified and he turned it towards the Inuzuka.

"Oi, Kiba! Don't call Sasuke an ass." Naruto scolded. "Though he's right Sasuke, that jutsu was awesome. Almost as awesome as me."

As his attention was diverted towards Naruto, Sasuke's expression immediately softened.

"Hn."

"Holy shit! You two are youthfully bumping uglies! Oh the joy's of youth!" Lee yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Hn."

"Don't 'hn' them Teme! They don't speak monosyllable, they'll get the wrong idea." Naruto was blushing from head to toe.

"Hn, Dobe. I think our little display while fighting earlier already established what kind of relationship we have. Though if it makes you feel better..." Sasuke turned towards Lee, while raising Akira up to his shoulder, burping him. "We have not 'bumped uglies'." He rolled his eyes. It seemed that with their age came more vulgar language, though it came with no more maturity. Then, as another thought occurred to him, he spoke again.

"Regardless, Naruto's mine. Don't touch him or I'll kill you." He smirked, letting a murderous aura surround him.

"Sasuke! Jeeze, don't be so stab happy." Naruto's blush intensified, though inwardly he felt a surge of happiness flow through him at being so publicly claimed.

"Hn."

"Right, well I see why I was turned down." Hinata smiled sweetly. "Welcome back Sasuke-kun. In honor of your return, we've all agreed that we'd like to throw a... celebration. Yes, that's it, a celebration."

"Hn. No."

"Teme!"

"No, Naruto. I have to take care of Akira, and I'm sure Itachi-"

"Itachi? Didn't you kill him. Damn, that's one serious brother complex you've got there."

Everyone went silent and stared wide eyed at the newly arrived Sai. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his wanna be clone and before he realized it, he had passed Akira off to Naruto, drawn Kusanagi, and placed it at Sai's throat. Sasuke was furious inside. He was beginning to like Sai less and less. The guy was always talking about Naruto's penis, making rude comments to Sasuke, and he had a sneaking suspicion that his relationship with Sakura wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.

"That's right, I killed Itachi. I killed my brother, believing his lies, while he tried to protect this village. The only complex I have, you little fuck, is one for the dobe. However, I'm sure Itachi would love to hear all about your theories. He's at the house now, probably training his lackey-"

There was a flash of movement and swirling leaves, and Sasuke found his katana, deflected from it's precarious perch upon Sai's collar bone.

"Maa, maa, Sasuke. We all know Sai can be a total fucktard, but let's put the sharp objects away, hmmm?"

Sasuke growled at his ex-sensei but sheathed his sword as Sai pouted and walked away.

"There, that's better isn't it! Now, I couldn't help but over hear-"

"You mean you were eavesdropping again." Naruto mumbled under his breath.

"-and you were invited by these accepting people to celebrate your return. I'm sure my dolphin-chan would love to watch the brat, and my two most troublesome students can get some time to themselves, hmmm?" Kakashi pointed off towards the group's right at a man slowly approaching them. Naruto was off like a speeding bullet.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto glomped his mentor at full speed, knocking them both over. The blonde immediately jumped up, apologizing as he drug Iruka over to the group.

"I'd be happy to watch Akira-chan tonight, Sasuke-kun." Iruka smiled. "I'm sure the others would love to catch up with you, and you need a break from the baby every now and again."

"It'll be fine, Teme. Iruka-sensei is the biggest mother hen I know. He'll take good care of Akira."

"Hn." Sasuke shot an appraising look towards his old academy teacher, hesitating.

"Please, Teme?" Naruto gave the raven his irresistible puppy eyes.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine."

"Yatta! Mutt! You get the alcohol! Choji, you're in charge of food! Everyone else can bring whatever they want."

Kiba turned to run to load up all the alcohol he could find, but was stopped by Hinata's grip on his vest.

"Where are we going to have this shindig, Naruto-kun?" She asked.

"Uhhh..." The blonde hesitated, looking towards Sasuke, who seemed to be constantly sighing.

"We can have it outside, in the district." The raven conceded.

The group gave exclamations of surprise and excitement. Most had never set foot inside the Uchiha complex. Hinata released her fanged boyfriend and he took off running like his life depended on it. The pale eyed girl giggled as she began gathering her friends.

"Well I hope you're all ready to get shit-faced tonight. Kiba's been hoarding a stash of sake that would make Tsunade drool. Come on guys, we've all got to get ready and I'm sure Sasuke and Naruto need to prepare as well."

"We'll start at 6! Everyone be sure to be on time, and Shika, you'd better not sleep through this one like last time!" The blonde scolded. Everyone laughed and began to depart, waving over their shoulders.

"Now, where's Yamato?" Naruto asked himself as he began to scan the crowd.

"Dobe."

"He's gotta be around here somewhere..." The blonde ignored his raven companion, as he continued to search, hefting Akira up onto his shoulder to support his head better.

"Tch. Dobe!"

"Aha! There he is, come on Teme!" Naruto pointed, grabbed Sasuke's hand, and drug him off into the crowd.

"Oi! Dammit Dobe, that's my wrist you're breaking." Once again he was ignored, but he felt slightly pacified as Naruto released is wrist and laced their fingers together.

"Yamato-taicho!"

"Ah, Naruto! Great job out there, both of you! What can I do for you? Tsunade said you wouldn't be needing a new house." He glanced at the pair of hands still entwined in front of him. "I suppose I can see why..."

Naruto grinned. "We're having a party, Yamato-taicho, to celebrate Sasuke coming home! Could you please set up a few things for us?"

"What sorts of things were you needing?"

"Tables! Ohhh and chairs! And maybe a gazebo! And a dance floor! Yeah!" Naruto shouted, his unoccupied arm flailing around as he spoke, whipping Sasuke's arm in random directions.

"Ehhhh? That's quite the list... Where and when is the party?" He asked, the fatigue from chakra loss that he knew was coming already bearing down upon him.

"Tonight, at 6, on the grounds around the house. Pleeeease Yamato?"

Naruto once again busted out his patented teary eyes. He released the Uchiha's wrist, handed Akira to his father, and brought his hands together in front of him, silently pleading for his help. Yamato looked towards the Uchiha currently rubbing his bruised appendage, who only raised one arched eyebrow towards him, signaling he was on his own. The jounin let out a deep breath.

"Fine. I'll be there at 4."

"Thank you sensei! See you then." Naruto once again shouted, grabbing Sasuke around the wrist once more, ignoring the slight wince, and teleported the duo home, leaving an exasperated ex-ANBU behind, shaking his head.

"Tadaima." Sasuke called out as he entered his front door. Naruto had just teleported them outside and the moment the world had stopped spinning, the blonde began hopping about, blathering on about party this, and preparations that.

"Okairi." Itachi called from the kitchen.

"Weasel-san! Party!" The blonde cheered.

"Oh?" The eldest Uchiha raised his eyebrow in question.

The blonde only nodded before running off, after having once again stolen Akira. The Uchiha brothers didn't mind though, they could smell the rank stench wafting off the child, and neither wanted to brave that front.

"You had to pick the most hyper ninja to ever walk the planet, didn't you?" Itachi asked in a good-natured voice.

Sasuke smirked, "Yup, even if it's just to annoy you like this. Not to mention, the dobe's got such a hot ass."

Itachi rolled his eyes, sighing. "You are so sexually frustrated. So? When's the party? I can't believe he managed to talk you into going to a party." Itachi snorted. "Is everyone going to fit in the house?"

Sasuke gave a low growl. "I wouldn't be so frustrated if _someone_," Sasuke shot Itachi a pointed glare, "would quit interrupting us. The party's at-"

"Saaasukeeee!"

"Shit! That was Naruto."

The brothers ran toward the scream, toward Akira's bedroom. They burst through the door only to find the room empty. Itachi and Sasuke looked towards each other, confusion and worry playing across their features.

"Dammit, Teme! Get your ass in here now!" Naruto bellowed once again.

"I would if I could find your dumb ass! Where in the hell are you?" Sasuke shouted back.

"Are you a fucking ninja or what? I'm in the bathroom, bastard!"

The Uchiha's ran back up the stairs and barged into the bathroom. Naruto was pacing as much as the cramped space would allow, while Akira was sitting in his bathing chair in the tub, freshly bathed. Seeing that both Naruto and Akira were fine, Sasuke raised an eyebrow in question.

"Dobe, what is it? The way you were yelling, I thought something was wrong."

"Something _is_ wrong, Sasuke." Naruto squeaked, pointing to the baby.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, and immediately picked Akira up, looking him over. He could see nothing wrong with his son, and turned his eyes toward Naruto, silently demanding him to explain.

"Don't look at me like that bastard! I'm serious! After that last diaper load, he definitely needed a bath! Ugh, it was so gross, there was shit everywhere and I didn't want to send him with Iru-"

"Dobe, get to the fucking point! What's wrong with my son?"

"Now, Sasuke, calm down." Itachi scolded, placing a comforting hand on his younger brother's shoulder..

"Hn."

"Right, sorry Teme. Look here." Naruto moved closer and lifted up a piece of Akira's raven locks. "See that? It's fucking pink! I thought it was just something stuck in there, but it won't wash out."

"Sakura." Sasuke growled, producing a shuriken from his wrist seal. He swiftly cut out the offending chunk of hair.

"Sakura? What does she have to do with this?" The blonde asked.

"Dobe! She was the one watching him. What did that psycho do? Dye his hair? I'll gut her!" The raven father growled, throwing the shuriken into the wall behind him.

"Sakura wouldn't-"

"Don't worry, you two, I'm sure it's nothing. I'll look into it. You need to get ready for the party, right?"

"Yea-yeah."

"I'm not going to any fucking party. I'm going to go hunt down an over-ripe cherry and-"

"Oh... you don't want to have the party? O-ok. I'll tell everyone." The blonde said in a low tone, his eyes a bit saddened. He raised his hands in front of him, ready to do his signature jutsu.

"Sasuke! Don't worry Naruto-kun. You can still have the party." Itachi smiled at him, banishing his fears.

"Really?" The blonde asked, hope evident in his voice. "Yatta! I'll go get some supplies!" Naruto cheered and ran out of the bathroom.

"Dammit, Itachi. Why'd you do that? I seriously don't want to go to any party at the mom-"

"Sasuke!" The eldest raven all but yelled, poking his outoto in the forehead. "Calm down and think about the situation. You don't know that Sakura did anything. And even if she did, you can't just go off and kill her because she dyed your son's hair. Naruto worked hard to make sure you'd be welcome once again in this town, and I'll be damned if I let you ruin what he's worked so hard for. Now you're going to go to that damn party they're throwing for you and you're going to enjoy yourself."

"No, I-"

"You can observe Sakura. Don't mention the dye, and watch how she behaves." Itachi reasoned as they left the bathroom and made their way into the kitchen once again. "And while you're there, I'll do my own investigation."

"Ugh, fine." Sasuke conceded.

"Good. Now do you need any help with this party?"

"Everyone's bringing everything we need, we just need to plot out the area and set up."

Naruto appeared before them in a cloud of smoke. In his arms he carried several long poles. Several more poofs sounded and five identical Naruto's stood beside the original, three bearing their own armful of poles, two carrying deep red ropes adorned with the Uchiha crest.

"Where in the hell did you get that?" Sasuke asked, a bit incredulous.

"The vault! Come on Sasuke, let's go pick a spot!" Six Naruto's responded at the same time.

"Usuratonkachi, the party's not for hours."

"So?" The original Naruto cocked his head to the side. "Come on! You too Weasel-san!" The six blondes ran out the door, juggling the poles as they went.

The Uchiha brothers groaned and Itachi ran a hand down his face. "Can anyone say no to him?"

"Nope, not if he doesn't want you to."

"We're doomed, and I don't even want in his pants. Dammit, we're so whipped aren't we?"

Sasuke just smirked and nodded. They followed Naruto out the door, quickly finding him just past the trees that surrounded the house. There was a pile of poles and ropes laid to one side as Naruto's five clones watched the original crawl around on his hands and knees, searching through the grass.

"Dobe, I'm almost afraid to ask, but what are you doing?"

"Looking for the symbol."

"Uh-huh. And what symbol would that be, Naruto-kun?"

"The Uchiha symbol... you know that red and white fan that's plastered all over the place?" Naruto replied while looking at the brothers as if they were idiots.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "On the ground?"

Naruto sighed, and spoke as if he were talking to a small child. "Yes Sasuke. I'm looking for the electrical boxes that were left over after all the houses were destroyed. The boxes are covered with plates adorned with that fan. There should be one around here somewhere..." He went back to searching through the grass.

Itachi looked at Sasuke. "Should we help him?"

Sasuke snorted. "Naw, let him have his fun." His gaze traveled to Naruto's ass, currently stuck up in the air as he crawled around on all fours.

"Who's the one having fun?" Itachi asked, but his question went unanswered. From the lecherous look on Sasuke's face, he wasn't surprised. Fifteen minutes later, glorious minutes in Sasuke's mind, Naruto still hadn't found the panel he was looking for. The eldest raven sighed, taking pity on the oblivious blonde.

"Minion!" He bellowed out. A black blur erupted from the surrounding forest, stopping in front of Itachi. Teme was careful not to let his shortness of breath show, he didn't want to be 'disciplined' again.

"Excellent. There are several small hatches with this." He grabbed Sasuke, turning him around and pointing to the crest on the back of his shirt. "Find the closest one."

Teme waited for further instructions. When none came, he ran straight towards Naruto, stopping three feet in front of him, and sat down. "Nyaa."

Itachi nodded, "Good work, Minion."

Teme perked up at his praise, it seemed he would avoid trouble today. Naruto stomped over to the plate, grumbling as he went. He marked the hatch with a small orange flag, and nodded to his clones who finally sprang into action. They quickly placed the poles in a perimeter around the panel, using the ropes to link them together. Once done, Naruto nodded.

"Since you refused to help me find that infuriating panel, you all now get to mow the grass in the roped off area." The clones began grumbling, before one smirked and began forming a Rasengan in his hand. "Nope! No Rasengan this time, no jutsu of any kind. You have to use kunai." The original Naruto grinned, a malicious look in his eye.

Sasuke snorted while adjusting Akira in his arms, "You've tried mowing the lawn with Rasengan?"

"Shut up, Bastard!" Naruto yelled, trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Hn."

Itachi laughed at the two, and excused himself. "I'll be back in a minute. Come Minion."

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for the clones to cut the grass by hand. Once they were done, Naruto extinguished all but one, giving it orders to stand at the gate and admit their guests. Itachi returned shortly after carrying an armload of food and a blanket, Teme dragging Akira's diaper bag behind him.

"I've made lunch. Let's go under the shade over there, shall we?"

They made their way to a large elm tree near the party area. Itachi handed Naruto the blanket he had brought. After the blonde had spread it out, Itachi began setting the food out, as Sasuke placed a now sleeping Akira on the soft cover. They enjoyed their picnic style lunch as Itachi was surprisingly good at cooking for someone who technically didn't exist anymore. It didn't take long after eating for Naruto to fall asleep with the baby on his chest, his head comfortably laid in Sasuke's lap. The raven was surprised at himself and the lack of lust he was feeling. Normally, with the dobe's head so close to his dick, he'd be hard pressed not to jump the blonde. Now though, he simply felt content as he slowly stroked the soft sunshine locks. _'Hn. He must have been more tired than he let on. Not surprising though, considering we had our fight and the clones fatigue returned to him.' _Itachi simply watched over his brother's happiness as he stroked Teme. A sudden 'poof' and swirling leaves broke the serene moment.

"Yo!"

"Shhh!"  
"Shhh!"

The newly arrived Kakashi and Iruka found themselves taking a step back when faced with twin Uchiha glares. Kakashi swore even the cat was glaring at him. The cat began hissing and hackled up it's fur. "They're not a threat, Minion." The cat immediately laid back down, enjoying the attention Itachi was giving him. It was then that Kakashi and Iruka noticed the sleeping Naruto and Akira.

"Ah! Sorry! We've come to pick up Akira-chan." Iruka informed them in hushed tones.

Sasuke nodded and gently picked Akira off of Naruto's chest. The movement woke the child, and Sasuke whispered a soft apology to him while rubbing his hair, and kissing his forehead causing Akira to coo softly back to him. The raven hesitatingly handed his son to Iruka. He wasn't sure he really wanted his son to be with someone else right now, especially considering the last time hadn't turned out so well.

"Don't worry Sasuke-san, we'll take good care of Akira-chan." Iruka-sensei assured him.

"I know." The raven stated causing Iruka to beam with pride, but not for long. "Cause if you don't, I'll kill you." Sasuke stated it so calmly, he could have been commenting on the weather, but neither Kakashi, nor Iruka doubted the raven.

"Mah, mah. Don't worry about it, Sasuke. You consider Naruto his father as well, don't you?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his old teacher. "Hn."

"N-Naruto's baby?" Iruka squeaked, his eyes glossy as he stared down as the babe in his arms. He instantly transformed into mother hen mode, fussing about the bit of drool marring the child's face.

"See? Now no matter what, my little Dolphin-chan will take excellent care of him. He'd die before he let any harm come to Akira-chan." Kakashi grinned behind his mask.

Kakashi's words drifted through a sleeping blondes dreams. His beautiful dream of a pool full of ramen and a naked Sasuke suddenly morphed into a noodle strangling nightmare. The noodles slowly morphed as well, into dark shadowy figures that were after Akira! He jumped suddenly awake, though not realizing it, a Rasengan already formed in his hand.

"Who's hurting Aka-chan?" He demanded.

"Calm down, Dobe. No one is hurting Akira. See? He's fine." Sasuke snorted, though pleased Naruto had acted in such a protective manner, not that he had figured the blonde would react any other way.

"Huh?" The confused blonde looked around. "Iruka!"

Iruka quickly made his way over to Naruto, throwing his one free arm around his ex-student, capturing him in a bone crushing hug.

"N-Naruto! Akira! Your baby! Oh Naruto!" The chuunin was close to tears.

Now Naruto was even more confused than before. "Iruka-sensei, Akira is not my son."

The scarred man was about to scold the blonde when Sasuke beat him to it. "He's yours too."

Naruto's eyes went wide. "Eh?"

Sasuke was now also sporting widened eyes, not realizing he had said that out loud. He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally speaking, a light blush dusting his cheeks. "Er... that is... I mean if you... want to be a part of our... family..."

"Foolish outoto."

Sasuke nodded, completely agreeing with his brother. Naruto suddenly burst into tears. Sasuke jumped up and embraced his blonde, holding his head to his chest with one hand, the other wrapped around him. "Oi, don't cry dobe! It's okay. I understand. Having a child is a huge responsibility and-"

"Of course I want to be part of your family. I'm crying because I'm happy. " Naruto rolled his eyes.

"Oh."

Naruto lightly punched Sasuke in his chest and placed their foreheads together. "Baka."

Kakashi looked towards Itachi. "I won't even ask." He gestured towards his two students. "Are they always like that?"

Itachi sighed. "It's beginning to happen more and more."

"Shut up, Weasel-san!" The blonde glared. "So?" He asked looking towards the scarecrow. "Why are you guys here so early?"

"To pick up Akira-chan, of course! We figured it'd be easier to set up." Iruka smiled at Naruto.

"Oh, right." Naruto looked down at Akira in Iruka's arms and smiled. Then, just like Sasuke, he rubbed his hair while kissing his forehead. "Be good for Ojiisan, Akira. Otousan and Chichioya will pick you up tomorrow." Akira gurgled in response, an infantile smirk on his chubby features.

Naruto hadn't noticed the effect his words had on Iruka and Sasuke, the way their eyes glossed over, the way their smiles couldn't be suppressed. With simple words of departing, he had touched both men in ways they hadn't thought possible. Iruka began to tear up, sniffling. Naruto may not have noticed, but Kakashi and Itachi did. The eldest raven groaned and the masked man silently agreed.

"I can't handle all this mushy shit. This is too much, I need a drink." Kakashi moaned. A shuriken flew past him, splitting his mask slightly and taking a few hairs along with it. He looked back to the source of the projectile and found a furious Sasuke glaring at him, his Sharingan spinning wildly.

"You will not drink alcohol, read your porn, accost Iruka, nor dye my son's hair while you are watching him!"

"That's right, 'Kashi!" Iruka scolded. "Behave yourself or you'll be sleeping on the couch for a year!"

Kakashi looked aghast. "But, but Iruka-chan..."

"Don't you 'Iruka-chan' me, Hatake Kakashi!" Iruka turned to Naruto and Sasuke. "We'll be going now. We saw Yamato-taicho on the way here, he should arrive soon." The pair finished their goodbyes and walked away, Kakashi grumbling all the way.

Itachi stood as soon as they were out of sight. "Come Minion, we will soon have numerous potential threats infiltrating our domicile. This is an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to increase the defenses of your home base." Teme jumped on Itachi's shoulder and the duo left for the rear of the complex.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "You sure this is okay?" Sasuke stepped closer to the blonde, wrapped his arms around Naruto's waist, and nuzzled the top of his head. "Teme, you're surprisingly cuddly." He giggled, but reciprocated the embrace.

"Hn. It's fine."

"Well yeah. I'm not complaining, it just nev-"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "The party, Dobe. It's fine."

"Oh, right." The blonde blushed. "Hey Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"Do you think we're mushy?"

"Beyond mushy, Dickless." An unmistakable voice sounded behind them.

Sasuke growled. "Watch your mouth, Clone-freak."

Sai kept his unnatural smile, despite the glare he was getting. "Hello again, Sasuke-kun. I see you've reconsidered your views on bonds. Your penis appears quite eager to bond with Dickless' ass."

"Sai, that's enough." Yamato warned, coming up beside the unemotional boy.

"It's okay Yamato-taicho. I'll just report him to Sakura." An evil grin broke across Naruto's tan face as Sai paled.

"You wouldn't!"

Naruto's grin widened. "I would."

"I'll be good." Sai visibly deflated. There was no way he'd risk incurring Sakura's wrath.

Naruto gave him a cheery smile. "Good boy."

Sai was about to comment, wrath be damned, but Yamato beat him to it. "Sai, go get ready... Now."

Sasuke smirked. "That's it, run along, puppy-chan." Sai flipped him the bird over his shoulder as he walked away.

"So Naruto-kun, what did you need done?" Yamato asked.

Excitement instantly entered blue eyes and Naruto began pointing out areas as he spoke. "We'll need a gazebo for cover around here with a dance floor in front. A couple of chairs over there, as well as a fire pit if you could manage. A couple of tall light posts around the perimeter would be great too. Oh! And a table for the food."

It didn't take long for Yamato to use his wood style jutsu to create all the items that Naruto had requested. Sasuke had watched in amusement, throwing out his opinions when asked. After a panting and profusely sweating taicho had finished and left, Sasuke rejoiced in his mind. _'Finally! It's Naruto time!' _The Uchiha smirked and started to make his way toward his dobe, who was currently standing on the dance floor, spinning in circles and giggling to himself. As he reached the blonde, he wrapped his arms around his waist and began swaying his body slightly to music only he could hear. Naruto smiled at his Teme, and was content to let himself be led in their silent dance.

"Ne, Naruto, let's g-"

"Oi! Blondie!"

Sasuke growled low in his throat. Why, oh why, did someone have to interrupt them _every_ time? He glanced over his shoulder at the offending voice and saw three fellow shinobi and a rather large dog pulling something indistinguishable behind him making their way toward them. The raven sighed and released his hold on the blonde.

"Kiba! Shika! Tenten!"

"Hn."

"Sorry Sasuke-kun. Did we interrupt?" Tenten smirked at him.

"Hn."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed. "I've got the barbeque but I don't want to carry it all the way over here. If you want it, come and get it." The lazy nin then turned and walked away, waving over his shoulder.

"Sure thing Shika! Kage Bunshin!" And several Naruto clones followed the pineapple head out of the complex.

"That guy... ah well at least you can count on him when it matters." Kiba grinned.

"That's more than we can say for you, dog breath." Naruto taunted.

"What'd you say, Blondie?" The fanged boy growled.

"You heard me."

The blonde smirked, only to have it vanish almost as soon as it had formed as Kiba tackled him to the ground. Tenten and Sasuke watched them for a moment, before the kunoichi sighed and pulled out a scroll. As she released the seal, several sharp pointy objects flew out, causing Sasuke to duck. Once the barrage had ended, the raven looked around. Tenten had brought several lighting implements. There were shuriken mini lights and paper lanterns to be strung up, and Sasuke's favorite, katana shaped torches that were meant to be placed on the posts Yamato had created. Bending down to inspect one, Sasuke noticed that not only did they _look_ like real weapons, they _were_ real weapons.

"Hn, these could possibly be the coolest lights I have ever seen."

"Thanks Sasuke-kun! I made them myself." Tenten shot him a grin. "Oi! Naruto! A couple clones would be nice to help put these up!" She called out. Naruto heard her as he and Kiba wrestled around on the ground and quickly formed the signature seal and created ten new clones without once breaking their scuffle.

"Thanks!" Tenten turned back to Sasuke. "He's oddly talented like that, isn't he?"

"Hn. He's got more talent and promise than anyone in this village, myself included." Sasuke admitted. Tenten only nodded in agreement and the two began putting up the lights with the aid of the clones. Once done, Tenten said her farewells and left to get ready for the party.

"Oi, Dobe. That's enough. We've got to-"

Sasuke suddenly heard the hiss of death. He quickly looked around and saw something that almost made him laugh out loud. Everyone had forgotten Akamaru, everyone save one cat that was instructed to patrol the perimeter. It took all three boys well over five minutes to pry to irate feline off of the now cowering dog. Kiba unhooked his canine friend from the cart he had been pulling, grumbling about evil felines. Sasuke silently agreed.

It was then that Sasuke noticed the cart itself. Once he had, he wondered how he had missed it in the first place. The wagon was fairly large; a ten feet long, five feet wide, and six and a half feet tall covered cart sat perched on four spindly wheels. It's size wasn't what had caught the raven's eye, nor was it the fact that it was pulled by a dog and had to be immensely heavy. The whole thing was painted a myriad of colors, splashes of varying hues looked as though they had been thrown on, rather than painted. In bright red lettering across the topmost portion, it read, "The Party!".

"Did Sai artistically throw up all over this thing?" The raven asked, amusement in his eyes.

"Hey man! Don't diss The Party! This thing is a legend!" Kiba growled out.

"Hn. Still looks like paint puke."

"Teme! Oi! Dog face! Open it up. That'll shut the bastard up." Naruto smirked.

The canine boy grinned and quickly ran over to his baby. He coo'd to it quietly for a moment, ignoring Sasuke's snort, before roughly punching the planked side. As he did so, the wagon seemed to split in half down one side, the top half swinging down to form a bar. Opened, Sasuke could now see what it contained, and he was shocked. Inside where shelves upon shelves lined with varying sizes and shapes of sake and whiskey bottles . There were three taps along an inside counter, cold beer ready to be poured. Palm fronds folded out to provide cover to those who might be standing near the bar. Kiba delivered one more swift blow, this time a kick to the lower half, and eight bar stools sprung out, ready to welcome interested drinkers. The fanged boy walked to the rear of the cart and entered through a door in the back. Once inside, he sent the Uchiha a smug smile, then clapped his hands twice. Instantly light erupted from inside, flashing deep reds and iridescent blues.

"Oh pretty!" A dark voice spoke right behind a distracted blonde. Naruto jumped into the air, letting out a rather loud scream.

"W-weasel-san! Don't do that!"

"It needs music." Itachi stated, ignoring the pouting blonde and the open mouth gape that Kiba was sending him.

"I-it only plays one s-song. Scary man...Why?" Kiba pointed towards the eldest raven, his face pale.

"Every bar needs music. Don't you think outoto?"

"Hn." Sasuke rolled his eyes. "He won't eat you Kiba, he's barely even real. Why does it only have one song?"

"The wagon used to be Blondie's. He knows this guy who thinks he's a rapper, and he played a prank on him. You wanna hear it?" Kiba smirked mischievously.

"Kiba! NO! I-I mean, no, it's really lame and you guys wouldn't-"

"I'd love to, fanged boy." Itachi definitely wanted to hear it, especially if Naruto didn't want them to. Sasuke too was having similar thoughts.

"Kiba," Naruto growled, "No. Don't-"

'WATCH ME POP THAT UCHIHA...'

Naruto groaned and buried his face in his hands while both Uchiha brother's eyes widened.

'PUT SOME CHAKRA ON MY DICK RIGHT BEFORE I POKE YOUR CHICK. WHEN I POP A UCHIHA I DO MY THANG...'

Naruto turned beet red, Sasuke's eye began twitching, while Kiba and Itachi wore matching grins.

'I'M STABBING SOMEONES BITCH ASS AND IF WE GET TO FIGHTIN' THAN I'M STABBING SOMEONE'S BITCH ASS...'

Eye twitch.

'SASUKE GONE UP IN THIS BITCH. SAKURA-CHAN CAN SUCK MY DICK. LEFT THAT ASS IN KONOHA, THAN SHARINGAN THAT BITCH...'

Eye twitch, eye twitch.

'CRANK THAT THAT UCHIHA. CRANK THAT THAT UCHIHA. SASUKE GONE UP IN THIS BITCH. SAKURA-CHAN CAN SUCK MY DICK. LEFT THAT ASS IN KONOHA, THAN SHARINGAN THAT BITCH...'

Itachi suddenly put his hands over his eyes, his fingers in the shape of a V. He began swaying his hips back and forth, throwing his head side to side. Sasuke's eye twitch was uncontrollable now and he was at a loss for words. He could only manage to send his brother a look that clearly asked, 'What in the hell is going on? And what in the hell are you doing?'

Itachi just winked and continued his dancing while replying, "I'm cranking that Uchiha."

'CRANK THAT THAT UCHIHA. CRANK THAT THAT UCHIHA'

Ten o'clock. The party had been in full swing well over four hours and most of the participants were well beyond inebriated. Sai, the last to arrive, had started off the drinking, trying to drown his embarrassment from showing up in a bright pink ballgown. Yes, Sakura's wrath was indeed something to be feared. Kiba, once he had escaped from an irritated Uchiha, also tried to drown himself in sake. His face was still stinging where Sasuke had punched him. _'Killer Bee's not here, so he takes his anger out on me? No wonder Blondie calls him bastard! Who cares if I'm the one who played the song, my eye is swelling up dammit!' _

The rest of the guests had shown up shortly after six. Ino and Sakura had brought music when they had arrived and Choji had brought two pots of ramen and enough pork to barbeque for a month. Shino had brought the music system and karaoke machine. Sasuke knew he'd get pulled into that death machine's trap sooner or later, though he hoped he was drunk enough by that time to not remember it come morning. Hinata had been the practical one, bringing cups, plates, utensils, and napkins. Neji had brought fireworks, but they were quickly confiscated by a sudden and quick appearance by the Hokage. Lee brought only a large bowl, several slips of paper, and a few writing implements.

Now, as the evening wore on, Sasuke looked over the party goers. Many were dancing, or rather grinding, on the dance floor, some were eating and the rest mingled around gossiping about the latest happenings. Naruto was fluttering from guest to guest ensuring they were having a good time. Shikamaru was the only one not participating in the festivities and was already passed out, though that wasn't that surprising at all. Lee, by this point, was the only sober one left, just as the group, sans Sasuke, had planned. Though if the Uchiha heir had known that a sober Lee surrounded by drunkards would turn out the way it did, he would have knocked the "youth" right out of him. The green spandex king suddenly appeared in the center of the gazebo, a microphone in hand.

"Yosh! Everyone! It's time for a little performance! Uchiha-san! Come up here!"

Sasuke glared. "Not on your life. There's no way I'm drunk enough for that." He rolled his eyes and turned to leave before getting sucked into something beyond embarrassing, but found that his body would not comply with his wishes. "What the fuck?"

"Kage Shibari no Jutsu, complete. How troublesome."

"Nara?" Sasuke growled. "Weren't you passed out?"

"I was..."

"Let me go."

"Sorry Sasuke, troublesome as it is, I've gotta do it." Shikamaru began walking forward, making Sasuke copy his movements. As the raven haired youth reached Lee, Shikamaru raised his hand up grabbing midair. Sasuke was forced to do the same, and found his hand closing around the microphone.

"Hn. You can make me move, but you can't make me sing."

Shikamaru let an uncharacteristic evil grin cross his face. "You're right, Uchiha. But you know, some things can be worse than singing..." He suddenly spun around in a full circle, popped his feet up so he was standing on his toes, placed is hand over his crotch and began thrusting. Sasuke, of course, was forced to do the same.

"Ok! OK! Stop! You're making me feel like a pedophile who gives spiked drinks to little kids in soda cans! You want to give me flashbacks? I'll fucking sing already."

A stool was brought out, and after Sasuke was released from Nara's jutsu, he sat down and glared at everyone. As soon as the "stage" was cleared and everyone had gathered around, Sasuke spoke.

"You guys suck. Isn't torture illegal here?" He sighed. "Oi! Someone bring me a couple of shots, I'm going to need them." A giggling Ino brought the requested beverages. Sasuke shot them back one right after the other, a pleasant hum thrumming through his body. "Right, since I'm not going to get out of this, I'll sing a fucking song, you'll like it, then you'll never mention it again."

His Sharingan silenced anyone who might have thought about shouting a rebuttal as Lee made his way over to the karaoke machine. The selection had been preplanned and the hyper ninja couldn't help but squeal as he hit play. Music began blasting out of the machine and Sasuke knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah..."

The Uchiha's eyes widened.

"Ruhma-ruhma-ma-maa..."

Sasuke's eyebrow began violently twitching.

"Ga-ga-oh-la-la..."

Raven bangs covered onyx eyes, and the young man's body tensed.

"Want your bad romance!"

Sasuke jumped up from his seat. "Fuck no!"

"Rah-rah-ah-ah-ah-ah...Ruhma-ruhma-ma-maa...Ga-ga-oh-la-la...Want your bad romance!"

The crowd had joined in, singing out the random gibberish blaring from the surrounding speakers. Sasuke attempted to leave the stage, he was _not_ about to sing that song, when once again Nara's jutsu stopped him. He heaved a deep sigh before plopping down once again on the stool. He began singing in the most deadpan voice he could muster, ashamed that he even knew the lyrics.

"I want your ugly, I want your disease."

Once again, his eyebrow twitch was in full action.

"I want your everything as long as it's free... I want your love, love, love, love, I want your love."

His fellow ninja began booing his lackluster performance and Sasuke had had enough.

"Fuck this!" He charged up a chidori in his hand, formed it into a sword, and sliced through the karaoke machine, ignoring the shouts and guffaws shouted at him. "I refuse."

Naruto made his way up towards the raven, a scroll in hand and a glimmering smile on his face.

"Here's this. It's your instrument right? Sing me one of your songs." Blue eyes bore into onyx and the raven found himself unable to say no to the oceanic depths.

"Hn."

"Yay!" Naruto kissed Sasuke on his cheek. "Knock em dead, Teme."

Sasuke unrolled the scroll Naruto had brought him, releasing the black acoustic guitar sealed within. He took a moment to tune the instrument while thinking about what song he would sing. Surely they wanted to embarrass him, wanted him to spill his feelings all over the floor. That last song was proof enough. Who was he to disappoint? He had been working through a song in his head for a while now, something appropriately meaningful yet sappy at the same time. Anything was better than the song before.

The Uchiha heir began to slowly strum the opening cords to the song he had chosen, his eyes closed, his face serene. The rowdy crowd had silenced themselves, surprise showing clearly on all but one face. Sasuke looked like he was born for the stage as he sat under the lights, playing his guitar with obvious care. As his fingers danced over the frets, he took a deep breath and sighed before putting his mouth the the microphone now placed on a stand before him.

"Is this a dream? If it is, please don't wake me from this high..." A small smile appeared on his face, his eyes still closed as he let his sultry voice flow over his friends.

"I've become comfortably numb, until you opened up my eyes..." Onyx eyes slowly slid open, locking with blue. The tempo increased as he continued singing.

"To what it's like when everything's right." Naruto, too, smiled a small, true smile as he realized this song was about him.

"I can't believe..." The girls were swooning, gripping onto one another in their excitement. This was way better than what they had planned. Sasuke stood, his voice becoming stronger.

"That you found me, when no one else was lookin'. How did you know just where I would be?" Naruto was grinning fully now, and sent a wink towards his raven haired lover.

"Yeah, you broke through all of my confusion." Sasuke returned the wink sent his way, causing the girls and one unnamed guy to let out small squeals.

"The ups and the downs and you still didn't leave." He began walking, leaving the microphone and the stage, his voice still carrying throughout the glade.

"I guess that you saw what nobody could see..." He stopped in front of Naruto.

"You found me... You found... me." He leaned in, giving fully pouty pink lips a small chaste kiss, his playing never ceasing. Leaning back he continued his song while his forehead pressed against his blonde's.

"So, here we are. That's pretty far, when you think of where we've been." They both smiled at each other, completely forgetting the others.

"No going back. I'm fading out all that has faded me within." Naruto playfully stuck his tongue out, licking the Uchiha's singing lips, causing him to smile.

"You're by my side, now everything's fine..." A small tap to Sasuke's shoulder reminded him that he had an audience of more than just one.

"I can't believe..." He began walking back to the stage.

"That you found me, when no one else was looking." He looked over the other ninja, his eyebrow raised, before looking back to Naruto.

"How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through all of my confusion. The ups and the downs and you still didn't leave." As he reached the microphone once again, he closed his eyes.

"I guess that you saw what no body could see..." Sasuke's voice grew strong once again.

"You found me... You found me..." He opened his eyes yet again staring down Naruto.

"And I was hiding, 'till you came along and showed me where I belong." A full blown smile, something most had never seen or heard of, was stretched across Sasuke's face.

"You found me, when no one else was looking. How did you know? How did you know?" The raven began furiously strumming the strings of his guitar, letting the music carry him away. His voice pelted out, strong and sensuous. The girls, Naruto, and surprisingly Neji all began singing along.

"You found me, when no one else was looking. How did you know just where I would be? Yeah, you broke through all of my confusion. The ups and the downs and you still didn't leave. I guess that you saw what nobody could see. You found me... you found me..." By now everyone was singing along.

"You broke through all of my confusion, the ups and the downs and you still didn't leave. I guess that you saw what nobody could see..." Sasuke let out a small laugh as he continued to sing.

"The good and the bad and the things in between. You found me... You found me..." He slowly closed his eyes yet again, playing out the last cords of the song. As soon as he had stopped playing, his breathing hard, his pulse racing, he was startled out of his reverie by the cheering of his comrades.

Twenty minutes, several pats and compliments, as well as several drinks later, the party was back on track. Yet again Lee was charged with gathering the party goers for the next and last planned 'activity'.

"Yosh! Everyone! Gather by the fire pit! It's time for a youthful game!" The bushy browed man exclaimed, while waving the supplies he had brought around.

"The fire'sss sparkly..." Ino stated in awe as she sat down. She looked toward her pink haired friend and frowned. "Hey!" She shoved her finger in the pinkette's face. "Your hair is pink... pink's kinda like red... the fire is red..." A confused look crossed her features as she pushed a stubborn strand of blonde hair out of her face. "The fire is sparkly... why's your h-hair not sparkly, fore-... *hic*... forehead?"

For a moment Sakura looked rather affronted but as she opened her mouth to argue with her childhood friend, a look of wonder crossed her alcohol reddened face. "Holy shit! It's not! Why is my hair not spaky? The fire'ssss ssssspar-... sparky... sparkly!"

Ino shot her an excited look. "Right! Isss not!"

"Oh my gosh! Maybe it's a jut-... juts... you know... a ninjaaaa technic..." Sakura's eyes widened.

"Yeah! Someone's scukin off your hair sparkles to use fo they'er selfs!"

"Fuckers! Oh, but murby they will come back to meeee!"

Ino nodded her head vigorously. "Yeah! Yeah!"

"You help!" Sakura demanded as she held out her hand to her friend, both closing their eyes.

Ino grinned. "This is so gonna work!"

"Hell yeah, we're genis...geminouses... we're so smart! Sasuke ain't got nutin on us!"

Shino, having watched the idiotic exchange huffed to himself before pulling a butterfly out of his pocket. Butterfly wings were littered with shiny, sparkly scales. He shook the insect over the two girls, releasing a cascade of shimmer. As the girls opened their eyes, they squealed.

"Sakura! It totally worked!" And again the girls squealed together, before Sakura abruptly stood, having seen Sasuke and Naruto walk up to the fire. She stomped her way over to them and jabbed the raven in the chest.

"I is spurky now, so don think yourrrr so great Uchiba!" Sasuke rolled his eyes, and stepped around the drunken girl, dragging Naruto to sit beside him.

As soon as everyone had managed to find a place to sit around the fire, or in Kiba's case, almost _in _the fire, Lee began passing out paper and pens to everyone.

"Yosh, everyone! You are to write down five things, one on each slip of paper. You can write questions or commands. Once you're done put it in this bowl." He raised up the bowl resembling a fish aquarium, shaking it around a bit. "I'm the only sober one, so I'll hold the bowl. If you are too drunk to complete your slips, raise your hand and I will help you."

"I wonder if that's the bowl he uses to cut his hair?" Neji whispered to Kiba and Naruto, who both burst out laughing.

Fifteen long, drunken, giggling minutes later everyone had placed their slips into the bowl.

"Alright! Sasuke-san, you draw first since this is your party! Read your selection aloud and then you must answer the question or do what is commanded! You cannot refuse!" A slightly evil grin passed over the ninja.

Sasuke sighed but did as he was told and drew a slip, folded in half, from the bowl. Unfolding it he read aloud, "Why can't girls and ukes be on top more?" The raven smirked and looked knowingly towards the laziest nin known to man. "Shikamaru, you're even lazy in the sack? Why? Simple, you don't give them enough motivation." He smirked at Shika, snorting at his quiet reply of 'troublesome'.

"Naruto!" Lee shouted. "Your turn!"

Naruto drew a slip and read it aloud. "How many rounds of sex can you go?" A shit eating grin split over white teeth. "Tons!"

"Yeah right." Kiba laughed.

"Seriously! I'm made of stamina! Can any of you last longer in a fight than me?" When no one responded, the blonde shouted victoriously, "See?"

There were several mumblings about how it was not the same before Lee once again turned their attentions back to the game at hand.

"Sakura-chan! It's your turn next."

"How big is your peeeeeeenis?" The pink haired, blushing kunoichi turned a glare towards Sai. "Sai!" The emotionless man had a drunken smirk. Sakura too, then smirked. She walked up to Sai, grabbed his pink dress covered crotch before saying, "Hmm, I'd say about six inches loooooooong, an inch wiiiiiiiide."

Sasuke snorted. "I take back ever calling you clone... You're most defiantly not my clone."

Sai glared. "Proove it!" He demanded.

Sasuke only smirked, "Sorry, not my question, Smalls."

Lee interrupted them before they could start bickering. "Smalls, it's your turn. Draw."

Sai swirled his hand around the bowl several times before drawing his slip. "How big is your penis? Damn. It's a dud."

Sakura smacked him in the back of the head. "You wrote it!"

"Yeah, but I wanted someone else to get it! Ah well, there are others still left."

Lee gave him a disapproving look. "No more repeats right?"

"Nope that's the last one! But I can't guarantee the safety of your penis!"

Everyone let out a groan.

"Right, Ino, it's your turn."

The blonde haired girl drew her slip and grinned at it's contents. She knew this one must have been one of Sasuke's, everyone else already knew. "Where's da nearrrrest sex...oooooh... shop?" She giggled. "3472 Ichi Drive. I recommend asking to see the baaaaaack room, Sasuke."

"Hn."

A few laughs went round the circle, and a red faced Naruto was given several knowing looks.

"Someone's got plans!" Lee shouted. "Yosh! Tenten, my dear, you're up!"

"Which is better, cow or beef?" She looked down at her paper, confused. "Uh... Beef?" Choji nodded his head vigorously in agreement.

Lee sighed at the stupidity of his drunken friends. It was times like this he was glad he didn't drink. "Alright...Kiba."

"Yes!" The dog boy jammed his hand in pulling out several slips. Sliding one slip from his hand, not caring that the others landed in the fire he read aloud, "Where did I put Akamaru's brush? ARGH! That's what I wanted to know, dammit!"

"Hinata-chan."

She drew. "What's your favorite sexual position. Damn, I got mine as well. Ah well, it's doggy style."

Sasuke was amazed by the fact that she hadn't blushed or stuttered at all. What had happened to that once innocent girl? As he watched Kiba growl and drag her off behind 'The Party', the answer became clear.

"Yosh! Kiba and Hinata are out! Shikamaru is supposed to be next, but he's passed out again. So up next, is... Neji!"

A rather uninterested Hyuuga drew his slip and read aloud, "Do you like a loud partner in bed?" He almost started laughing. "Kami, no! Could you imagine a loud Gaara?" At this point he did start laughing rather uncontrollably. He was ignored by everyone.

"Choji," Lee held the bowl out towards him, "If you would please."

"Why does Naruto never remember me?" Choji was confused. The alcohol he had ingested wouldn't let him make sense of the words in front of him, nor let him ponder who might have written it. So he just said the first thing that came to mind. "Because you're forgettable!"

A quiet sob was heard coming from Shino as he rose from his seat and left the area.

"Yosh! Shino's out! Which leaves me!" Lee drew his slip. "Are you happy?" Everyone groaned. "YOSH! I am youthfully-"

Sasuke snatched the bowl away from the bushy browed man, effectively cutting off his rant on youth. Those that were left shot the Uchiha a grateful look. That youth speech was hard enough to take when sober.

"Hn." He drew his slip and his face paled.

"What does it say Teme?"

"Hn. Get a tattoo."

Naruto let out a happy squeal, shooting up from his seat. "I get to pick! I wanna do it!"

"Dobe! You aren't marking me up!" Sasuke glared at Naruto, who looked rather devious.

"You scared, Bastard?"

"Hn." Sasuke knew he was screwed. "What are you going to do?" He asked hesitantly.

"It's a secret! Where do you want it?"

"Hn." The raven haired man narrowed his eyes towards the blonde, looking him straight in the eyes. He let out a long sigh. "Between my shoulder blades. Don't fuck it up, Naruto, or your ass will never recover..."

Naruto gave him a lecherous grin. "Promise?"

Sasuke let out a growl but before he could protest or threaten any further, Naruto grabbed him by the shoulders, turning him around so that his back was facing the blonde. He reached down to the hem of Sasuke's shirt and ripped it over his head. When his eyes met with the pale expanses known as Sasuke's back he was momentarily struck immobile. The toned planes of his muscles were drawing Naruto in like a moth to a flame and he unconsciously licked his lips.

"Naruto?" Lee asked, bringing him back to his senses.

"Right!" He began weaving together hand signs, too fast for any onlooker to see properly, and slammed his palm down into the middle of Sasuke's upper back causing him to grunt. Those gathered around watched intently as a multitude of lines and shapes began crawling out from under the blonde's palm. As the lines ceased moving and Naruto pulled his hands back, a few let out small gasps. A rather large Uchiha fan had appeared on the raven's back, the lines delicate and rather intricate looking. Naruto let out a cackle, immediately sending warnings shooting through Sasuke.

"Hn. Dobe, what did you do?"

"Heh, wanna see it Teme?"

"Dobe, we don't have a mirror..."

"Gah, you're so unimaginative." The blonde once again brought his hands together. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" After the smoke cleared he used yet another jutsu. "Henge!"

An exact replica of Sasuke stood before them. As it turned around, the real Sasuke was able to see the mark on his back. The raven stood and stared intently at his clone, his brows furrowed slightly.

"Well?" Naruto asked, slightly nervous.

"Hn. What are these?" He asked pointing to the lines of the fan.

For a moment, Naruto was stunned. He had made sure that the lines of the fan looked as such, just lines drawn to outline the fan. Once he noticed Sasuke had his Sharingan activated though, he wasn't surprised at all that the Uchiha had noticed the tiny seals within.

"Well Teme, those ensure that you're stuck with me for the rest of your life!"

"Huh?" Was his, oh so elegant, drunken response.

"You'll never be able to escape me again. I'll be able to find you now, no matter where you go." The blonde's grin contained a bit of a maniacal undertones, and a certain determined urgency could be heard in his voice.

"Huh?"

Naruto snickered. "Look, see that tree about fifty yards away?" He asked, pointing to said tree. "Run over there."

Sasuke looked at Naruto, his eyebrow raised, silently asking what in the hell he was on about.

"Just do it."

The raven sighed, but did as he was told and jogged over to the tree. "Now what?"

"Close your eyes."

"Hn." His eyes remained open.

Naruto huffed, mumbling about bastard raven lovers before disappearing. Sasuke's eyes widened and he immediately began searching the area. What did this have to do with his tattoo? He felt a breath on his neck and he suddenly knew the answer.

"You were supposed to close your eyes, Sasuke-bastard." Came the whisper from behind him. "No matter where you go, I'll be able to appear at your side."

"Hn." The Uchiha raised his arms and reached behind him, his fingers trailing over his new mark, before grabbing Naruto's wrist and bringing him around to his front. "Is this the same thing you used during my exam?"

"Mmm. It was my dad's technique and he put something similar on my mom..."

"Dobe..."

"IF YOUR EXAMINING PENISES, I WANT TO JOIN!" Sai, predictable as ever, called out across the clearing. He took one step toward the lovers and fell flat on his face, his drink finally catching up with him.

Sasuke snorted, "No wonder he's with Sakura." The blonde laughed at his raven companion and began dragging him back toward the fire, careful to step over their passed out friends. Sasuke was not so kind and ground his foot into Sai's hand as he walked past him. The two made their way back to their seats, Sasuke sitting on the chairs created by Yamato, Naruto between his thighs, sitting on the ground.

"Yosh! Naruto and Sasuke-san are back! We left off with Sasuke, so now it's Naruto's turn."

Naruto leaned forward and retrieved his slip of doom. "How many people have you slept with?" Sasuke immediately perked up, eager to hear his dobe's answer. "Hmmm, I dunno... There's Sakura and Sai, and Kiba and Neji..." The blonde was oblivious to the Mangekyo Sharingan now staring down those who were named. "Oh and one time with Kak-"

"Naruto!" Sakura reached over and smacked the blonde upside his head. "It means seeeex!" She hissed at him.

"Oh... OH!" His once tan face was once again painted red that night. He hid his face in the shadow of his hair and mumbled out an undecipherable answer.

"Louder my youthful friend!"

Naruto was beyond embarrassed, the slight shame he felt, coupled with the alcohol caused him to raise his head and shout, "NONE!" As he realized what he had done, his eyes widened and he once again hid his face.

A snort came from Sakura, a 'poor man' from Neji. Various others voiced their opinions on the matter as well. Sasuke gently squeezed the blonde in his arms, playfully licking the outer shell of his ear.

"Hn. Good. You're mine..." Came the possessive whisper. As he felt Naruto shiver in his arms, his embarrassment gone, he smirked and continued his assault, moving his lips down the tan neck before him. He gave gentle licks and a few nibbles before reaching the juncture of neck and shoulder. He relished in the musky taste assaulting his senses, and was forced to suppress a moan. Once there, he bit down roughly, before sucking quite hard, making sure to leave a glaring mark. "All mine."

"Come on! Next! Sakura-chan!"

"Lickie between all of your toeses... Ugh." True to the game, she did as the paper instructed. First inserting her big toe, which was quite dirty with her lack of shoes for the evening. After laving it thoroughly with her saliva, causing a few to gag, she moved on to the next. Once she got to her third toe, she too passed out, toe still in her mouth, having apparently forgotten to breath.

"Yosh! That's youthfully disturbing! Sakura-chan's out! Ino!...Ino?" Lee and the others looked around, finding the missing blonde too was passed out. Her face smashed into an also passed out Tenten's, drool leaking down from one cheek to another. "Hmm, that leaves just Choji, Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, and myself..."

"I'm out, and I think Neji needs to be taken home." Choji stated, while trying to stand on his wobbly legs. Neji was currently talking to a blade of grass, complaining about his lack of destiny. No matter what he believed, once drunk, fate emerged for the young Hyuuga.

"Well I guess that's that. How anti-climactic." Naruto pouted.

Sasuke smirked and not so quietly whispered into the blonde's ear, "The climax comes later, Dobe-chan."

Naruto let out a small whimper before looking towards Lee. "Lee, thanks for supervising. We'll clean up here, and I'll get clones to take everyone home."

As soon as they had all gone, clones supporting the guests as they walked out the Uchiha gates and into Konoha proper, Sasuke grabbed Naruto up from the ground, wrapping his arms around him.

"Beam us home, Dobe."

A few hand signs later, they had disappeared.

* * *

The two shinobi reappeared on the couch in their living room, faces glued to each other, hand groping, and tongues tangling. They were unaware of having disrupted a meditating Itachi and Teme. The eldest Uchiha stared at the now dry humping duo for a moment before a moan broke the relative silence. He could smell the alcohol wafting off of the boys, and his face turned into a scowl. Itachi rose from his lotus position and yanked his younger brother off of Naruto.

"Huh? Itachi? What in the hell do you think you're doing, damn aniki?"

"What am I doing? What are _you _doing, foolish otouto?"

"Did you really go blind? Isn't it obvious? I'm gonna fuck my Dobe into the couch!" Sasuke looked at Itachi for a moment, his eyes wary and suspicious. "You can't watch..."

"Hn." Itachi rolled his eyes. "No thank you. And there will be no fornication tonight!"

"Eeeeh?" Naruto screeched. He looked down at his now raging erection. "You can't do that Weasel-san!"

"I can and I will. You're both virgins and drunk. In this state, you'll just end up hurting each other."

"Fuck that!" Sasuke growled, lunging toward Naruto.

He was almost to his goal, his sweet, beautiful blonde, when he was caught by Itachi. The long haired raven man began dragging his younger brother to his room, Sasuke kicking and screaming, summoning a multitude of shuriken from his wrist seals and throwing them, all missing their target.

"Noooo! Dobe!" Sasuke screamed. "I want my Dobe! 'Ruto!"

Naruto crawled on the floor after the Uchiha brothers, cursing Itachi along the way, and planning evil plans against the hair that swayed and taunted him as he got further and further away from him.

"Dammit, Sasuke. Stop wriggling!"

"No, baka aniki! 'Ruto! 'Rutoooo!"

Itachi finally made it to Sasuke's room and tossed him inside. He immediately began forming seals, and placed his hands on the door, effectively locking his over hormonal brother inside. He heard a whimpering and looked down to see his brother's blonde pawing at the door like a lost puppy. He grabbed him up, threw Naruto into his own room, and repeated the sealing process. Both shinobi began pounding on the doors.

"You can't even use chakra! How in the hell did you lock me in here? Let us out, damn aniki! "

"Yeah! Weasel-san, this is too cruel!"

Itachi sighed as he tucked the key he had kept from view back into his pocket. It was times like this he wished he _was_ able to poof his existence away. "Quit screaming and whining. Kami! You two should learn some freaking restraint!"

"If you'd let me out, I could restrain him! My dobe would look fan-fucking-tastic in chakra ropes and bondage gear..."

A moan was heard coming from the blonde's room.

"Hn. You'd like that, wouldn't you 'Ruto... being tied to the bed, unable to resist me while I pound-"

"Ugh, I'm not staying to listen to this... MINION!" Teme ran downstairs, looking at his master for instruction. "This is your first mission, Minion." The cat perked up his ears. "Stand guard. Make sure they don't manage to somehow get out. If they do, or you think they might, come get me immediately."

"Nyaa!"

"-and you'd be screaming my name over and over-"

"Ugh." Itachi retreated back up the stairs to continue his meditation.

Another moan was heard from the blonde. "Yes, Sasuke, yes!"

Teme laid his head down, covering his ears with his paws. His little body gave out a sigh, this was going to be a long night.


	3. Chatper 2 lemon

Warning: Containts sexual situations between two males, of consenting age.

* * *

Inside his bedroom, Sasuke had laid himself down on his bed. His breath was coming in short bursts and his pants were tighter than he would like. _'Damn evil Aniki's! He thinks he can stop me from making my Dobe moan out in pleasure... Hn. Not likely...'_

"You're hard aren't you, Dobe?" He called through the wall behind him.

Naruto, who had also laid on his own bed, frustration rolling off of him in waves, shivered at the sensual voice calling out to him. The lust was so evident in Sasuke's voice, Naruto was seriously entertaining thoughts of breaking down the wall. It would be alright... right? He sighed. No. No matter how much he wanted his bastard, tearing down the house was not acceptable.

"Fuck yes!" The blonde hissed out. "You're brother is evil."

Sasuke smirked. "Hn. Forget about him. Just do exactly what I tell you... Can you do that, 'Ruto?" He asked as he ran his hand down his chest, stopping once he reached the bulge in his pants, giving it a light rub.

"Yes, Kami, Sasuke... Yes..." The blonde moaned out.

Sasuke pressed his hand harder into his erection causing spikes of pleasure to scream through his spine, only to settle once again from where they had come. "Ugh, fuck Dobe. Kami, I love you. You're so sexy, saying my name like that... Are you on your bed?"

"Mmm... hnnn..."

"Strip. Now." As Sasuke heard the almost silent rustling of clothing through the wall signaling that the blonde had listened to his command, he too began to eagerly strip off his clothing. Raising himself up on his knees, his face toward the wall separating them, he growled out another command.

"Touch yourself, Naruto. Run your hand down that beautiful chest of yours."

"Hnnnn..."

"That's it 'Ruto... play with your nipples..."

Naruto did as he was commanded and brought his hands up to each nipple. Slowly he started running his fingers around them, teasing himself a bit before roughly pinching each one, the sensation causing his erection to harden further. Soon they were hardened into tiny little peaks, each flick of his finger adding to the surmounting pleasure.

"Uuu-gh-NNmmm..."

"Feel's good doesn't it? You're little buds are so hard aren't they? Can you feel me flicking them, licking all around them, pulling them into my mouth?"

"Nuu-aahhh... Yes, Sasuke... please..."

"What is it... what do you want, 'Ruto?" Came the sultry voice.

_'Kami,' _the blonde thought, _'I could get off just on his voice alone.' _Little did Naruto realize, that that was exactly what Sasuke had in mind. "M-more... please... Sasuke..."

Sasuke let out a loud groan. Fuck, if his Dobe wasn't driving him wild. He had never been so hard in his life and his erection continued to swell and throb.

"I'll give you whatever you want, Naruto." The raven reached down, grabbing a hold of the base of his pulsating member. "Touch your cock, Dobe. I want to hear you pleasure yourself."

The blonde eagerly did as he was told. Reaching down to his own erection, he too grabbed the base before giving himself two quick strokes. As a loud moan reached Sasuke's ears as he slowly started stroking himself. "Fuck yes, that's it Dobe."

Again, another moan was heard from the room in front of him. He indulged in a few more strokes, stopping to tease the slit at his head before a rhythmic thumping sound was heard and his concentration was once again focused on the blonde. "Ngnn, shit. You've got lube don't you Dobe? Take it out and prepare yourself... one finger at a time..."

He heard a drawer open and close and a cap pop open. Just the thought of his blonde doing as he was told, touching and pleasuring himself to the sound of Sasuke's voice, made the raven bite his lip, holding in his moans. He wanted to hear every sound his gorgeous blonde let out, they were more intoxicating than any drink he had had that night.

"Sa-s...uke..." Naruto moaned out. When the blonde heard a reciprocating grunt, he drove in another finger. As he stretched himself, two fingers working in tandem to pleasure himself, he couldn't help but imagine that his digits were Sasuke's, that it was him stroking him slowly. He began driving his hips up and down on his scissoring hands, feeling his silken walls, relishing in the sensations coursing through him. Masturbating had never been this intense for the blonde. Already rivers of sweat poured off him, making his body glisten in the moonlight that peeked through his window.

"Fuck yes, Naruto. I can hear you fucking yourself for me. Kami, I wish I could see you... Another. Add another finger Dobe... stretch your greedy little hole..."

"A-ah, shit! Sas...ke..."

"Another!"

Naruto groaned as he added a fourth finger to his already widened passage. He had never gone beyond two before, and the double sized breach was leaving him breathless and wanting. He was surprised that it hadn't hurt more but chalked it up to the alcohol and the incredible pleasure flooding through him. Even if it had stung, with that voice commanding him every step of the way, he wouldn't have cared in the slightest.

"Yes! Yes! They're all in 'suke... it feels so good! I wish my fingers were your cock. I want to ride you, Teme... Kami so bad... " Again and again the blonde thrust himself down on his probing fingers, and again and again he let out his appreciative moans.

"Ugnnn... Shit... yeah, you want my hard cock, I'll give it to you." The raven growled out.

He was having a hard time controlling the speed of his strokes, each moan making him want to just thrust into his hand over and over, harder and harder, faster and faster, imagining that it was Naruto he was pounding into. If not for the fact that he wanted to hear his Dobe cum more than anything, he would have given in to his carnal pleasures already.

"Ehh? B-but.."

Sasuke laid down again on his bed, his back to the sheets. "Grab your lube 'Ruto... use that perverted jutsu of yours... transform that bottle into my cock. I'm so hard for you Dobe, so fucking hard. My nine inch cock is dripping for you..." It took only a moment for the raven to hear the tell tale sound of poofing before he growled out again. "Fuck yes! Impale yourself. Your tight little asshole is quivering for me isn't it? You want it don't you?"

Naruto wasted no time lowering himself onto the lube turned penis that was now attached to his bed by chakra. As the psudo-chinko pressed into him, he fully relaxed his legs, his tight hole swallowing it whole with only a minor stinging sensation that was dimly registered. He couldn't help but let out a loud groan turned moan as he reached the base. Breathing deeply he called out to his raven lover.

"It's...heh... oh shit, it's in... all of it... can you feel me Teme? Can you feel how tight I am around you, how deep you reach me?"

Sasuke's barely suppressed animalistic lust sprung forth as his control snapped. With a loud growl he began pumping his member, sliding his thumb through his slit every third stroke. "Fuck! Yes... ride my cock, Dobe, ride me... fuck yourself on my cock!"

Naruto raised his hips until only the tip was barely contained before slamming himself back down. He threw his head back as the intense sensations screamed through him. He felt as if his skin were constantly shifting, waves of tingling cool and blazed of singing hot washing over every inch of his flesh, only to be increased as the shaft hit his prostate tearing a loud moan from his throat. As he rode 'Sasuke', he reached up to once again play with his nipples, increasing the already incredible feelings. His unoccupied hand constantly running all over the planes of his body. "Sasuke! Yes! YES!"

The raven too sped up his movements, as well as reached a hand down to fondle his balls as he tightened his grip on his dripping member. He began thrusting up into his hand, his timing matching the knocks of the bed on the wall next door. "You like that, don't you Naruto.." He panted out. "You love my cock driving so deep into you... faster Dobe, harder... drive yourself onto me... I want to hear you scream..."

Naruto released his nipple and grabbed his headboard with both hands, using the leverage to impale himself harder, faster, deeper than before, smashing the head of the cock inside him into his prostate over and over again. "Nuuuuh, fuck! So good Sasuke... so good... I'm so close Sasuke..."

"Ugghn... me too Dobe, just a little more... you feel so good, so hot and tight around me... faster... uhnn... faster!"

"Yes...yes... Yes...YES!"

"Fuck yeah, that's it Dobe."

"Sasuke! Sasuke!"

"Fuck! That's it, say my name, Naruto... scream it!"

The blonde could feel his orgasm hurdling towards him, his stomach tightening, his shaft swelling. He reached down to pump his own member, wet with his precum. "SASUKE!"

"Shit! That's it! Now, cum!"

And Naruto did. With a scream, "SASUKE!", that could be heard at the boarders of the Uchiha complex, the blonde felt his orgasm take over him. Pulsations of euphoria propelled his semen, strings upon strings streaming out of his cock, shooting to hit the headboard and his chest.

Hearing his Dobe scream his name out in such pleasure was enough to cause Sasuke to fall over the edge as well. With a quieter, "Na-narutoooo...", and a grunt he too was cumming. He had never cum so hard in his life, though he had never had such stimulation either.

Both boys, drunk on passion, alcohol and love felt blackness encroaching on their vision, the powerful orgasms they shared robbing them of their consciousness. They fell asleep in pools of their own cooling semen, proof of their passion.

* * *

"N-n-yaaa..."


	4. Chapter 3 point 1

Chapter 3.1

Bright. It was far too bright. And loud. Piercing sunlight streamed through tiny cracks in the window shade, burning its way through Sasuke's eyelids. Even with his eyes closed, he could feel its incessant desire to wake him. It seemed Teme, too, was on a mission; most probably imposed upon it by his evil, _**evil**_, aniki if the howling outside his door was any indication. _'You'd think someone like Tsunade would have invented a jutsu to cure hangovers by now. Hn. She probably has. She and her cherry clone are holding out on us. Hn. Bitches.' _

Sasuke groaned before slowly rising into a sitting position. As he stretched out his tired muscles, he shot a glare first at the offensive window, then settled his murderous vision upon his door and the hell minion he knew lay just beyond. _'Don't kill Naruto's cat… Don't kill Naruto's cat… Don't kill-' _A trademark smirk crossed the young Uchiha's features. Kill? No. But there were certainly other methods. Yes, other methods indeed.

With a new vigor and purpose, hangover completely forgotten, Sasuke quickly stripped the case from his pillow. Using the stealth that had saved his life and took the lives of others countless times before, he made his way over to his closed bedroom door. There Sasuke flung the door open with enough force to leave a perfect copy of his door handle imprinted into the plaster behind. Moving with the grace and agility born to all those who call themselves Uchiha, Teme was scooped into the pillow case before he had even realized the door had opened.

The bag shook and vicious sounds emerged from within. Content and smug with his victory, Sasuke took the feline upstairs to the kitchen. After rummaging around in a few random drawers and finding some ninja wire, he securely wrapped the wire around the top of the bag, making sure the snarling beast wouldn't be able to escape. Satisfied with his capture, Sasuke retrieved a wooden spoon. After taking stock of his items, he nodded to himself and carried his possessions to the kitchen table.

Thud.

"Nyaaaaaa!" -Hissssssss-

Poke.

"Nyaa!"

Poke.

-Hissssssss-

'_Harder.' _Poke.

"Nyaaaaaa!" -Hissssssss-Hissssssss- Thud.

Sasuke's smirk was scary. Even Itachi thought so. To watch his brother torment his poor minion; repeated poking and prodding, relishing in the cries of distress and the unholy look of triumph as the cat fell off the table all together whilst trying to escape… It made him wonder what sorts of trauma he had really inflicted upon his poor otouto. He brought one hand to his heart and the other to his forehead, his posture taking on a dramatic air.

"Oh! Woe is me! I've let you down otouto!" Itachi mock sobbed. "Fear not Sasu-chan! There are other ways! You need not torture animals to deal with your troubles! Big brother will listen to you. Come, let's talk… Is it that you feel you cannot perform well, sexually?"

Sasuke looked up at his brother, one eyebrow raised. "Are you high?"

"Yes. Yes. That's right; it's okay that you might have troub- Wait. What?" Itachi had been gesturing wildly, his imagination taking flight at the possible distress he might have caused Sasuke.

"You. You're totally stoned, aren't you?" Sasuke smirked. "Your minion woke me up. It needed punished. If I can't kill it myself, I'll just have to get it to kill itself." He turned his back on his brother, his attention once again focused on the no longer jostling bag at his feet.

Poke.

"Otouto, I think you're sick."

Poke.

"You may need a doctor, Sasuke."

'_Harder.'_ Poke.

"See? My minion isn't even moving anymore… Look. And it hasn't made a sound… Awe! What've you done to my minion?" Itachi looked rather petulant until a look of utter joy took over his features. "Ooh! You're going to be in sooo much trouble when Naruto finds out. Oooooh!" Itachi had one hand hiding his mouth, a finger firmly pointed at his younger brother while jumping up in down in his excitement over the prospect of watching Naruto soundly thrash him.

"Not as much trouble as you're going to be in when he finds your stash. Freaking genius ghost-genjutsu hybrid of an aniki, figures you'd be the one to figure out how ghosts can get high." The youngest Uchiha rolled his eyes towards his brother. After kicking the limp sack under the table, Sasuke poured himself a cup of coffee. _'Hello again, my dark love. You taste so good again this morning. I would die with out you.' _

"Sasuke! I'm not high, dammit! Hey! Quit talking dirty to your coffee in your head. Don't give me that look! It's written all over your face! That's it! I'm going to wake up Naruto, then you're going to get it! Naruto! Ooooiiiiii! Nar-"

Bang.

"NARUTO!"

Sasuke absently noted that Iruka could be even louder than Naruto, a feat he had previously thought impossible. Such idle thoughts were soon blasted away however, as he took in the scene before him. Kakashi and Iruka had just burst in their front door, winded, sweating, and visibly strained. In his sensei's arms was his son. Crying. No, not just crying, _**screaming**_. His tiny face was scrunched up in a look of pain, his chibi fists were clenched together. His small frame shook with the force of the strain upon him. Sasuke quickly took his son from Iruka, trying to calm him, to somehow sooth him.

"H-he won't stop," Iruka began. "No matter what we've tried, he's just been crying for three hours now. I'm sorry, we were going to let you sleep-" He was wringing his hands together in obvious worry.

Sasuke set his son down on the couch, running his hands all over his small body looking for any source of pain. He fed small amounts of chakra into his child, hoping to discover his ailment. Nothing. After quickly stripping his son, Sasuke immediately knew. The small golden swirl over his son's heart was glowing with a pulsating light. He looked over his shoulder to tell his brother to go wake Naruto, but noticed he was just returning, his face ashen.

"Naruto's gone."

Sasuke growled. "Tsunade's then."

* * *

The stay at Tsunade's didn't take long. Once there, it was only a matter of minutes before the pulsating stopped along with Akira's crying. It was obvious there was a direct correlation between the two, but without Naruto present, there wasn't much else to go on. No one had been able to find him, nor had anyone seen him since last night's activities. Tsunade had offered a small ray of hope, an elixir to ease Akira's apparent pain. Still, Sasuke was torn. On one hand he was glad that his son's pain had been eased, but on the other hand, he wasn't sure it wouldn't return. Naruto, too, was plaguing his mind. Where was his dobe? Why would he leave? Where did he go?

The pile of questions was growing and the only one who could answer couldn't be found. He desperately wanted to leave the village, search for his idiot, the same way said idiot had relentlessly searched for him. Things were different now though. He couldn't just leave his son, nor with his condition, could he take him. He was left to wait and wonder, left alone and without course of action. Sasuke hated it.

'_Dobe, if you're not dead, I'll kill you myself when I find you.'_

* * *

It was dark. It smelled. There was water dripping somewhere and something continually bit into his restrained arm. He could move nothing. There was no sense of time, space, or self. Only darkness. And voices. Deep menacing voices that whispered in the dark. Calling out to each other for more syringes, more withdrawals. Faceless voices that whispered in the dark. It smelled. The water was dripping. There was no time, no space, and no self. He was alone and tormented by the sounds of far away crying, of screaming in the dark.


	5. Chapter 3 point 2

Chapter 3.2

A month. Thirty days. Seven hundred forty-four hours. Forty-four thousand, six hundred forty minutes. Two million, six hundred seventy-eight thousand, four hundred seconds... and counting. No Naruto. No trace. No hint.

"Whaaaaaaaa!"

"Sasuke!"

"I know!"

It had happened again, as it did everyday. Akira was once again screaming, begging; as only a baby can, for relief. Each bout of agony was always accompanied by the dim pulsing light coming from his son's chest. Sasuke was at a loss. His son spent more time now in a doped up sleep than he did awake. What was he to do? He couldn't go on missions, obviously. He couldn't search for Naruto, regardless of his wishes. Where would he start? He couldn't help his son, not really. He could do nothing. He was useless. Weak.

Once Akira had been eased of his pain, sleep taking him once again, Sasuke emerged from his son's bedroom. He thought about heading upstairs, but instead turned, made his way down to the end of the hall and paused outside of Naruto's door. He turned to stare at the wooden grains running throughout the portal in front of him, unseeing. The Uchiha knew what lay beyond. He had been in Naruto's room countless times before... _'Fetching his clothes he forgot to take with him to the shower... borrowing a scroll I was surprised Naruto owned at all... waking him...' _

A pale hand rose to lay upon cold, lifeless lumber. He hadn't been able to set foot inside since he had discovered the blonde's disappearance. To walk in and see all the signs of Naruto; his bed, his possessions, feel his spirit still lingering in the air, it would be far more than he could bare. Sasuke's breath caught in his throat. _'Dobe... Kami, Dobe... I... I don't know what I'm supposed to do... I don't know...' _

"...how to be alone anymore."

It was barely more than a whisper, spoken only for the one who'd never hear it. Sasuke closed his eyes as he leaned his forehead on the cooling surface of the door. The past weeks were catching up with him. The Uchiha felt the tightening in his chest, the stinging in his eyes, and like so many other things, was powerless to stop it. His legs gave out and his knees slammed roughly into the floor. He was in over his head, not for the first time in his life, but unlike all other occurrences, he could see no way out. Until he was gone, he hadn't fully comprehended how much he had come to depend on the bright blonde. For him to become so dependent so quickly, should have shocked the raven haired youth, should have caused him to rebel and fight. But it hadn't shocked him at all. He didn't want to fight what he had been developing with Naruto. And Akira. Sasuke had promised that he would make his son's life better than his own. He had sworn to save him from pain and suffering. He had failed. He had let his son down, his dobe down.

"Dobe..." He spoke in another breathy whisper. "What should I do?" Hot tears began streaming down his face. "You left me... why?" Sasuke began beating on the door in front of him, slamming his fists against the grains, his frustrations and worry mounting. "WHY?" He screamed, throwing his head back, glaring at the unseen sky. "WHY? What did I do to des-"

Sasuke paused mid-rant as the Naruto's bedroom door opened, seemingly of it's own accord. His eyes widened, his body began to tremble. Slowly, he began moving inside, praying to find his blonde within. Of course, fate was not so kind. He was the rooms sole occupant. He moved to the bed, as if on autopilot, and froze. There within the tousled sheets was the evidence of Naruto's passion, the lube bottle carelessly tossed towards the foot of the bed. Without realizing it, he had thrown himself onto the bed, burrowing down within its depths, eager to seek out any proof of Naruto's life. His smell surrounded him and he breathed it in as if it were his last breath. The scent of grass and nature was everywhere, as if the missing blonde had lain there only moments before.

As he burrowed further within the bed's depths, his foot struck a rather hard object. Curious, Sasuke fished out the offending object. He emerged from his blanket cocoon, and realized he held a book. Naruto's Journal. His hands once again shaking lightly, Sasuke opened up to a random page, roughly half-way through the volume.

_Dear Journal,_

_I still hate calling you that! It's so- so- GIRLY! Speaking of girlie, ('cause you know he is!) we almost found Sasuke again today! It was so close! Kakashi-sensei thinks we were only a few days behind the teme. Damn Baa-chan for making us report back every week. How're we supposed to track down the teme in a week? It's the freaking Teme! Don't worry though! I won't give up! Sasuke's my... Sasuke's... well never mind. The teme is the teme and that's all there is to it! I'll bring him home whether he likes it or not! Oh today Neji and Ki-_

Sasuke tore his eyes from the page in front of him, a sudden realization coming over him. _'Ah. That's it isn't it. This is some divine retribution for leaving isn't it? Is this how you felt, Dobe... Naruto? Did your chest ache like this?' _He gripped his shirt over his chest, bunching the material within his fist. _'I deserve this. Karma will always find you, Father always said so.'_

* * *

***knock*knock*knock***

Itachi looked up from his minion who was currently trying to catch a fly without killing it, in vain, towards his little brother. Sasuke had been beyond apathetic the last few days. He frowned, knowing he could do nothing to help.

"Are you going to get that, otouto?"

"Hn."

***knock*knock*knock***

"...I don't think they're going away..."

***knock*knock*knock***

"Hn."

***knock*knock*knock***

"...Could be important..."

"Hn."

***knock*knock*knock*knock*knock*knock*knock*knock*knock***

"Oh for shit's sake, Sasuke!" Itachi huffed, rising to welcome whichever persistent person lay beyond the door. What greeted his eyes, however, as he opened the door, left the eldest Uchiha rather stunned. There, on their front stoop, stood the entirety of the 'Konoha Twelve'. Without an invitation, Kiba shoved Itachi aside, making his way towards Sasuke slouching in Naruto's chair, the rest silently following.

"This is an intervention!" Kiba screamed at the depressed youth.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, slowly got up, and made his way to the liquor cabinet. The group watched in silence as the raven downed three consecutive shots of sake. As he was pouring his fourth, Itachi finally spoke up.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"The dumbass said this was an intervention. I'm getting addicted." The fourth shot quickly disappeared. "Besides, I'll need more than this if I have to deal with you people."

"Kiba's an idiot." Ah yes, Neji. _'Ever the one to state the obvious' _Sasuke snorted to himself.

"So, its an intervention for him then? Great. Get out." The youngest Uchiha turned to leave and actually made it two whole steps before he was stopped in his tracks. Confused, Sasuke looked down at his feet before quickly becoming enraged.

"Damn Nara! Let me go! I fuckin' hate this jutsu!" Sasuke seethed.

"Then sit down and listen to what we have to say." Shikamaru sighed. "You two are always so troublesome."

"Hn."

Shikamaru tentatively released his jutsu, watching carefully as Sasuke returned to his previous seat, pinning him with a rather intimidating glare.

"You have five minutes, or until Akira cries again, to say something intelligent. Hurry up." Sasuke ground out between clenched teeth. _'Fuckin' Dobe and his fuckin' friends.'_

"Naruto's gone." Kiba began.

Sasuke huffed and rolled his eyes before rising once again from his sitting position.

"Five minutes, Sasuke." Shikamaru sternly reminded him.

The youngest Uchiha looked down, seeing that infernal shadow only an inch from his foot. Begrudgingly he sat down once again. He activated his Sharingan, showing his displeasure and meeting everyone's eyes before looking back what was apparently the spokesman of the group. _'Idiots. Who let's Kiba do their talking?' _He could hear Nara grumbling under his breath, "...and he hates _my _jutsu,..." and smirked.

Kiba warily met the still stationary tomoe, the Sharingan seriously freaked him out sometimes. "Look, we've all been affected by Naruto's disappearance. We can all see how much it's affecting you-"

The crimson glare intensified, the tomoe slowly starting to spin.

"-Akira! I mean we can see how its affecting Akira... I mean, ever since Blondie vanished he cries at weird and totally random intervals, right? And that spot!"

"Kiba, that's enough."

Sasuke's glared switched targets, landing on a head of pink. "Hn. Says the one who apparently cannot keep her mouth shut when concerning my affairs. Now, do you have a point or-"

"I believe the point Kiba is trying to make is that you should get up off your ass and save him. Why? Because he searched for you and tried to save you for over ten years."

At Shino's words, Sasuke hid his eyes behind his bangs, shadows encapsulating his features in darkness. Most there thought the scene looked rather sinister, and many gulped loudly. However, when Sasuke raised his head, his countenance was nothing of the sort. Emotions came flooding through the remains of his shattered mask. His features were twisted in obvious agony, his eyes burned with unbridled rage, his hands clenched and unclenched in nervousness and worry. Only the Uchiha-tick in his right eyebrow gave an indication towards the added on stress of falling apart in front of so many others, in front of anyone that wasn't his dobe.

"I know... I know..." Came the whispered voice of the distressed youth. "Of course I want to go after him! But how in the hell am I supposed to do that? We have no clue as to whether he just left on his own to whether he was taken! We have no clue where he could've gone or what's been done to him! How am I supposed to go after him when Akira screams every couple of hours? I can't just... just... leave!" By the end of his rant, Sasuke was pulling at his hair, his breaths coming short and shallow. "Maybe you guys don't get it, but having a kid changes everything. The only reason shinobi can even have children is because they have support, family. I can't just leave Akira with anyone and run off into the wild for an indeterminate amount of time! And I... I don't have... He was supposed to be my... our, f-family... Na-Naruto..."

"Your youthful brother could watch your even more youthful son, Sasuke-san!" Lee exclaimed, thinking this the best idea, and most feasible.

Everyone else in the room, Itachi included, sweat-dropped. Yeah, that would be a great idea, letting your only son be watched by your brother, whom coincidentally just happened to kill every other member of your family. The tension though, had been broken and Kiba once again stepped forward.

"Well... except for all that emo shit, I'm glad you feel that way. The intervention was a cover! This was a test, man!" Kiba laughed, jovially slapping Sasuke rather hard on his shoulder.

Sasuke, though, was not feeling so friendly. _'Test? What the FUCK do they mean, TEST? That's it. I'm gonna kill them all, or at least that loud mouthed mutt...'_ When he started to yet again rise and a rather dark and maniacal aura surrounded the Uchiha, several of the group took a step back.

Neji, however just huffed, threw his hair over his shoulder, and quite calmly spoke to Sasuke. "Calm down, drama queen."

Sasuke began trembling with rage. "Fuck you! I came back and I became weak. This-"

Hinata timidly stepped out from behind her dog like boyfriend. "A-ano S-Sasuke-kun..." Hinata had long ago gotten over the more shy aspects of her personality, but facing an enraged Uchiha, and saying what she was about to say was enough to make most grown men weep. Seeing she had caught his attention, she took a deep breath before continuing.

"Naruto's just a whore."

Everyone, save for Shikamaru was shocked. The shadow user though, simply smirked before once again extending his jutsu, ensnaring the Uchiha, and watched as Hinata continued.

"That's right. He's a whore. He's run off to his pimp. Oh and he's planning on coming back and taking Akira and then selling him to an old feudal lord to... satisfy him, once he's old enough. I hear he's got a rather peculiar-"

"Nara," Sasuke interrupted, "If you value all your friend's lives, you'd better not release your jutsu."

Shikamaru was no longer smirking. He gulped and felt the sweat start to drip down the sides of his face as he concentrated on keeping one of the strongest nin alive within the confines of his jutsu. Hinata, though, simply blinked at Sasuke, cocking her head to the side.

"Do the things I say hurt, Sasuke-kun?" She asked innocently.

"Hn."

"You want to kill me right? Along with everyone else in this room? Perhaps the whole village?" She pushed. She was answered with a look and a 'Hn.' that would pop up in her nightmares for years to come. Oddly enough, though, she smiled. "That's not weakness, Sasuke-kun. You know my words are false, and yet, because of your love for your family, you are willing to destroy us all. It may be overkill, a bit reckless, but its not weak. Right now, you're probably the strongest you've ever been, simply because you're fueled by your need for Naruto."

Sasuke relaxed, the murderous aura surrounding him dissipating, and he slumped back into his chair. "It doesn't matter what you call it. It doesn't change anything."

Shikamaru released his jutsu, realizing the immediate danger was over. Panting, he fought to catch his breath as he let out a shaky, "Actually..."

* * *

A/N: Ohhh... what does Shika know? *dun*dun*duuuuuun* ^^)

Thanks to all of you whom have reviewed/favorited/alerted/etc! I really do appreciate all of your continued support! Also check out my profile for a couple of new links!


	6. Chapter 3 point 3

A/n: Thanks to all of you whom have read/reviewed and stuck by this story! I 3 you. ^^)

* * *

Found

Chapter 3.3

* * *

The room carried a varied silence. Quite a few in the group looked as surprised as Sasuke felt, but it was obvious that the potential news was already known amongst a small portion of the gathering. When the genius youth didn't continue on, leaving a heavy silence behind, the raven's impatience only grew, escalating towards rather unstable heights.

_'Shikamaru,'_ Sasuke thought, '_is evil. Now's not the time for dramatic pauses. Hmph. And I sure as hell shouldn't be the last to know anything when it comes to my Dobe. Apparently, some people aren't aware of the severity of an Uchiha's claim. That is something that will definitely need to be rectified._'

Shikamaru, starting to feel uncomfortable under the intense killer stare of the distraught Uchiha, quickly cleared his throat and continued on.

"As I was saying... Actually, I received a report of two scouting Anbu coming across something rather strange on their patrols toward the southern boarders. They expressed that everything was calm and quiet, when they suddenly felt a malicious chakra. Of course, they went to investigate, only to find a dozen rogue shinobi on a heading towards Konoha." Shikamaru paused here, for just a moment, to let the possibilities sink in for everyone, though he knew Sasuke was already arriving at the correct conclusion.

"Each of the shinobi," he continued, "was covered in a red, violent chakra. This chakra seemed to bubble and churn and appeared to be destroying the bodies of the shinobi it covered. The shinobi themselves didn't seem to possess any awareness of their surroundings; simply trudging mindless towards what we think was their goal. It was at this time, one of the Anbu left the scene to report back while the other stayed behind to further survey the scene." Again, the tactics genius stopped. There could be no doubt in their minds now, whether Shikamaru just came right out and said it or not. These shinobi, apparently heading for their home, were covered in the Kyuubi's chakra.

"After a few more minutes of observation, it appeared the shinobi had reached their limits, falling dead to the ground, their bodies eventually consumed by the dark chakra, leaving behind only dust. Soon after, however, several more shinobi in similar condition replaced the fallen, paying them no heed, and yet making it slightly further than the others before them." Shikamaru glanced at Sasuke, trying to gauge his reaction. He was met with a blank face; Sasuke had completely cut himself off from everyone, save the one person they were seeking. He inwardly sighed.

"The remaining Anbu followed the trail of oblivious nin to a cave complex in the mountains slightly further to the south. They reported seeing the shinobi here in a less deteriorated condition, but no less unintelligent. It seems the chakra first ensnares their minds before then destroying their bodies. The Anbu could not get any closer without raising suspicion but believing to have found the source, returned to report."

Shikamaru let out an audible sigh this time as he ceased speaking. Again he allowed his eyes to watch the form of the Uchiha and this time the anger could be seen through his mask. Normally, the usually lazy nin would mutter something about this all being far too troublesome, but this time; Shikamaru felt the same anger. He had drawn up his own conclusions and none were pleasing.

"I know you're angry, Sasuke." The normally bored boy said, trying to pacify the raven, if only slightly. "But we've got to discuss our plan."

Sasuke, who had begun pacing, trying to work out some of the building tension, let out a small huff before slumping into his chair. "Hn." He wisely ignored Lee's ramblings about youth and unbridled energy.

"Obviously you understand the implications of what I've told you, and you'll also obviously want to go on the retrieval mission. As such, Akira becomes an issue." Shikamaru ignored the clenching fists he knew wanted to make contact with any part of his body, as many times as possible. "I can understand your wariness and why you don't want anyone to watch him. And taking an infant to a most probable battle situation is not an option. But, if you're willing... I might have a plan."

Sasuke looked up sharply, a cautious curiosity and a meager slice of hope he was unable to suppress lit his eyes like a beacon.

"Naruto is your family, correct?" Shika asked.

"Yes." Was Sasuke's immediate response.

"Good. You don't trust people, especially with Akira... so leave him with something else..."

Sasuke was momentarily lost... '_Something else...? What does he mean somethi-_' "Ah. The toads."

A small half smile lit Shikamaru's face. "The toads. If you're willing, I think they'd watch Akira, simply because of his ties to Naruto. I'd suggest one of your own summons, but I don't think they'd be as accommodating. The problem is, however, that you have to make contact with one of them. Without Naruto here, our only option is Hokage-sama... Let's hope you're on her good side."

Sasuke inwardly groaned as he thought back to his last meeting with the Hokage of Konoha.

* * *

~*~ FLASHBACK ~*~

"Shut the fuck up, you useless bitch!" Sasuke Uchiha screamed at their village leader, standing in front of her desk, fuming.

"You watch your mouth, you little shit!" Tsunade glared.

"Fuck that! My Naruto has been gone for a fucking month and you haven't done jack shit to find him, you useless whore of a Hokage!" The raven slammed his hands on the messy desk, sneering as he screamed. He was beyond irate, and at this point whether or not people heard, or any consequences to be had were trivial matters at best.

Tsunade also stood, her hands slamming down just millimeters from Sasuke's. "Now you listen here, Uchiha. Since you decided to return, I am your Hokage. You will show me some FUCKING RESPECT!" She hand managed to curb her anger until the end, degrading into a screaming match, shaking and red from anger and sake.

Sasuke let out an amused snort. "Don't jiggle those giant sagging fat sacks you call tits at me. Respect? For what? Naruto is gone and what in the fuck are you doing about it? I am loyal only to Naruto and since he's not here, I could give two shits about your title, _Hokage_."

His voice had lowered and he appeared calmer, but Tsunade knew that one hell of a storm brewed just below the surface. Sure, like she had said, she was the Hokage; but here in front of her was an extremely volatile and dangerous man. Plus, the gaki was rather fond of him. '_Damn, I just want to punch that little egotistical shit!_'

"Exactly," she ground out, "you're loyal to Naruto and as such you will remain in this village. If you would like to continue doing so outside of a jail cell, reparations paid or not, I'd suggest you shut the fuck up, calm the hell down, and wait until we have a lead." Tsunade growled.

Sasuke stared at her uncaring. It was taking all his restraint not to attack the bitch and say screw the outcome. "Fuck. You." And he was gone in a puff of smoke.

~*~ FLASHBACK END~*~

* * *

Sasuke turned away from the group's knowing looks, hiding his face behind his bangs. His fellow shinobi giggled and chuckled quietly. All had heard about the Uchiha's outburst. Hell, the whole town had heard by now and were eagerly gossiping about the ex-missing-nin and his yelling match with their leader. None, though, could find any real fault as they had wanted to do much the same, their surmounting frustrations eagerly seeking an outlet.

"Don't worry about it, Sasuke-san. Why? That's because we will make our displeasure known to the Hokage if she refuses our request." Shino stated while adjusting his glasses, then muttered under his breath, "...even if no one ever remembers me..."

Sasuke replied with a smirk and a nod at Shino, then to everyone else, showing his gratitude. He had hurt all of these people in one way or another in the past, and yet they were still willing to help him. Even if it was just a result of his relationship with Naruto, the fact that they had accepted him touched a part of Sasuke he had thought was dead.

"Right. So we'll get her to summon one of the toads and inform her of Naruto's whereabouts. Then it's just a matter of retrieval." Shikamaru sighed.

"Inform her? Shouldn't she already know?" Sasuke asked, an unwanted hint of confusion in his voice.

"The Anbu I mentioned before didn't exactly make it to the Hokage..." Tenten giggled as Shikamaru smirked.

Sasuke looked on, still confused, and now a bit appalled. They didn't report to their Hokage? Why? Wasn't that their sworn duty as nin of this village?

Sai raised his hand. "Hi. I'm Anbu number one, nice to meet you."

Neji nodded towards the Uchiha, "Anbu number two. We've just returned."

"Ah." Sasuke acknowledged. "Right. Thanks."

* * *

Crowding over a dozen people into Tsunade's office was a rather uncomfortable and arduous task, especially with Akira once again screaming, Itachi cursing, and Sasuke searching through a bag of the baby's things. As soon as the Uchiha brother's managed to once again calm the tempestuous babe, Sasuke stepped forward ready to speak.

Before he could utter a sound, however, Tsunade stopped him with a raised hand and a malicious grin. "Unless you're here to apologize to me-"

"I apologize for my rude behavior. It will not happen again." Came the raven's immediate response.

Everyone was shocked. Well, almost everyone. Sakura knew that at this point, Sasuke would do whatever asked of him to get Naruto back, damaged pride due to apologies were inconsequential. It was the same with Naruto when Sasuke was gone.

Without giving Tsunade a chance to close her gaping mouth, he continued, seriousness and an order to be obeyed laced within his smooth voice. "I need you to contact Lord Fusarasu."

"...Ahem, ah... heh..." Kiba cleared his voice, trying not to laugh. "I believe he means Lord Fukasaku."

Tsunade's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Lord Fukasaku? As in one of the two great sages of Mount Myoboku? That Lord Fukasaku?"

Sasuke forced down his minor mounting embarrassment and replied in a deadpan voice. "Yes." Then, after a pause. "Please."

Immediately Tsunade was wary. And curious. Oh yes, definitely curious. Her golden eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"Please."

The Hokage was silent, staring at Sasuke for a long while then at the rest of the ninja gathered before her. Here was the future of her village, of the country, of the world. And they were asking her to just do as they please without a proper explanation. Not that she didn't think she would get one. She had her ways, and one way or another, her questions would be answered. It was obvious they knew something. Several of the shinobi were restless, shifting uneasily from one foot to the other. She sighed to herself, hating the influence the brat had on her and wishing she had another cup of sake handy.

Tsunade rose to her feet and went through a small door behind her desk. Momentarily she returned with a small scroll. Unfurling the scroll on her desk revealed a complex seal inked into the parchment. The seal originally allowed only those who had reached sage-hood within the toad-dom to call upon those in Myoboku, but since Naruto had started training, Tsunade had been granted access. It was times like these she was happy that Naruto was always the exception to everything. She inwardly smiled before forming several quick hand signs and slammed her hands on the scroll. After the resulting smoke dissipated, Lord Fukasaku was revealed, eating a bowl of squirming grubs in a savory cricket sauce.

Without looking up from his meal, the great sage called out. "What do you want Tsunade? I'm in the middle of my meal."

Tsunade snorted. "The Uchiha brat wants to speak with you."

Fukasaku looked up from his supper, glancing around the room at those gathered, his eyes lingering on Sasuke just a fraction of a second longer than the others, before asking, "Well?" and returning to his meal.

Unhesitatingly, Sasuke stepped forward to the toad on the village leader's paper strewn desk. "Do you recognize me as Naruto's mate?"

The food within the lord's mouth was quickly dispelled across several important documents. He quickly sent Tsunade an apologetic glance before slowly turning to Sasuke. "Have you his mark?"

"His mark?" Sasuke asked himself before revelation struck him. "Ah." The Uchiha turned around to face his back to the frog, and removed his shirt, ignoring his fellow shinobi and their blushing faces, and revealed his tattoo.

"Come closer boy, and let me see it properly."

After wiping away the worst of the soiled papers, Sasuke laid his upper half across Tsunade's desk, allowing Fukasaku to inspect his back at his leisure. The feel of slightly wet webbed feet crawling across his bare skin was surprisingly less disturbing than the feel of snakes to the Uchiha. After a few more minutes of intense scrutiny, Fukasaku removed himself.

"I acknowledge you to be his mate." He finally answered as Sasuke rose to replace his shirt.

The Uchiha could feel his heart flutter. "Do you recognize my son as his?"

The Toad Lord hesitated a moment, rubbing his chin in thought, then answered. "If sired by him, then yes. If not... if not, then it would depend."

"On what?"

"On Naruto." He stated plainly, shrugging his diminutive shoulders. "If he claims the child as his, then yes. I would not disavow any of the boy's family."

"He claims him." Sasuke stated firmly.

Fukasaku looked at the Uchiha skeptically, bouncing slightly on his webbed toes, a small squelching sound squeaking throughout the room. "You can prove a mark, son. But you can't prove something like that. Naruto would have to say as much directly to me. It is an important matter after all."

"You can't ask him. He's missing." The raven grit out. This was not going according to plan. They would only take a child of Naruto's to Mount Myoboku, but without Naruto's claim on the child, they were at a loss.

A sense of alarm washed through the toad. "What?" He yelped, before turning to Tsunade.

"I... I might be able to prove that Naruto claims our son." Sasuke hesitantly said, a sudden thought coming to him.

Fukasaku was in a small state of panic. "Is now really the time for that, boy?"

Sasuke quickly retrieved his son from his brother, who upon anticipating his younger sibling, was already at his side. Bringing Akira down to the sage's level, Sasuke lifted up the tiny shirt covering his son's chest, revealing the small swirl.

It didn't take Fukasaku nearly as long to inspect this mark, and almost immediately barked out, "I acknowledge this boy as Naruto's son. But what is going on here? What's happened to Naruto?"

"Naruto is missing." Sasuke stated, handing his son back to the boy's uncle. "However, we've got a lead-"

"WHAT?" Tsunade screamed.

"-but I need someone to care for Akira. I realize that my history does not belay much trust, on either end, but if it is Naruto's toads-"

"I'm not _his_ toad!" Fukasaku muttered, indignant.

"Will you care for him? So I can save Naruto?" Sasuke asked, disregarding the fact that he was interrupted, again. He hated having to ask such a question, yet would ask the same infinitely more times if it meant that it would allow his family to be safe. Fukasaku had remained silent after Sasuke's request, allowing too much time for surging emotions to begin to chip away at his Uchiha mask. His desperation was beginning to be visible around the corners of his eyes.

Finally, the toad replied. "I shall return momentarily." And in a poof he was gone.

* * *

The first minute of the toad's departure was marked with silence and a momentary shock; many 'what-the-fuck' looks were plastered amongst the group. The following three minutes were drenched in a tension so thick, no one dared move, nor make a sound. The final, and fifth minute was signaled and sustained by a low sound, almost like growling, coming from the youngest Uchiha brother.

By the time Fukasaku returned amidst yet another poof of smoke, Sasuke was ready to throttle the frog, Naruto's mentor and sage or not, but the Fukasaku that returned was not the Fukasaku that had left. The small amphibian was ashed and visibly shaken. Distress was clearly visible in his lithe frame, the shaking even more so.

"I-I saw h-him." He stuttered out. "I saw N-N-Naruto-boy."

"What?" Sasuke screamed. "Where? Take me to him!"

"I-I can't. You know I can't. O-only with a c-contract and you h-have your own... I-I s-saw him. I saw-"

"What? What old man?" Sasuke urged, grabbing around tiny arms, shaking the already trembling figure.

"Sasuke let g-"

"I saw him. I reverse-summoned myself to him. I-I don't know where we were, s-somewhere underg-ground. I saw him. Ch-chained... t-to a stone." Fukasaku tried to stop the trembling in his voice. "Arms and legs pinned down. A woman... she came in and I hid away. She gave him a shot, a shot of something awful and then she left."

"What was it that she gave him?" Tsunade asked, alarmed.

Fukasaku's eyes remained trained on the Uchiha as he spoke. "Don't know. Awful. It made him scream, he was unconscious but still he screamed, awful screaming. I've never h-heard such... even while training, such brutal..." He shook his head, closing his eyes. "He was emaciated, bruises and cuts all over his body, maybe a broken arm. I was glad he was unconscious. I imagine he's... he's in a great deal of pain. I left him a secret message for when he wakes up." His body was still trembling, but the toad sage was glad he had gotten his voice under control. He opened his eyes and once again looked at Sasuke.

"You wish me to care for your son while you rescue Naruto-boy. I will do so. Please make haste Uchiha Sasuke. I fear he can only last so long."

Sasuke clenched his fists, his rage once again thrumming nearly unchecked throughout his body. "Those bastards. Pumping him full of who knows what, hurting him who knows how, and taking all of Kyuubi's chakra... he can't heal like he used to..." The Uchiha looked into the toad's eyes. "Thank you. We must hurry. Tsunade will explain Akira's condition. Those staying please fill them in on the current situation and our plan. Lord Fukasaku, take him to Myoboku, even if he must make a pact."

The old sage let out a tense smile. "No worries my boy, I am able to take him with me. He is without a pact and is but a babe. He can choose that in his own time. Now be off, he is in good hands. I will treat him as if he were my own."

Sasuke nodded to the toad sage, then to the leader of their village before he, Shikamaru, Kiba and Akamaru, Neji, and Sai disappeared in their signature poofs of smoke.

"Will. Someone. Please. Tell. Me...What in the hell is going on here?"

Tsunade's bellows rattled the windows and several framed documents fell from their postings on the wall.


	7. Chapter 3 point 4

A/N: This portion may contain material that _may be considered_ spoilers if you are not up to date with the anime currently airing in Japan.

Found

Chapter 3.4

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Control. For an Uchiha, it meant everything. For Sasuke, it was his greatest weakness and his greatest strength. More than anything else, his unshakable control had saved his life countless times, and had gotten him through hell and back. It also cost him more than he'd care to admit. Years lost, never to be regained, bonds broken and thrown away, all because of his lack of control. Especially, when it came to Naruto. Anyone who had known the Uchiha knew it to be true. Just a glance, a smile, or a hastily shouted "Teme!" would send his control vanishing into some dark corner of his soul, and this time it was no different.

Now, Sasuke was struggling to maintain that control, that cool head in times of heated rage, and it was proving harder than ever. He had more in his life to lose now than ever before and for once, he was actually scared to lose it. Terrified. He could feel the panic well up inside him, barely suppressed by the desperate need to find Naruto, to bring him back home.

The rescue team was currently surveying the cave after dispatching the cursed shinobi that had wandered out. They had set numerous traps in the surrounding area, complete with a transportation jutsu that would send the unfortunate souls to a holding cell in Konoha. They had been watching the entrance for fifteen minutes without any further sign of life.

"Screw this. I'm going." Sasuke snarled, his impatience getting the better of him at last.

Shikamaru sighed. "No, Sasuke. You can't just waltz into an enemy compound. We need a plan. Sai sent his ink mouse scouts in earlier. We will wait for them to return."

Sai perked up from his crouched position. "Ah. They were discovered and destroyed ten minutes ago," he informed them, his creepy smile planted across his face.

"And you didn't tell us? Why? You know what, never mind. You. Are. Incompetent." Sasuke growled out, a sneer sent towards the other pale boy. He quickly formed several seals, bit his thumb, and summoned a large and beautiful hawk.

After popping into the material plane, the hawk shook its feathers out and looked around. Spotting his summoner, the hawk took a deep bow. "Yes, Sasuke-sama?"

"Toushi, I need you to-" The raven started, but the sound of brush breaking and stomping footsteps interrupted him. He quickly drew a shurikan and sent it flying in the direction of the disturbance.

Kiba, who had been posted as a lookout, had returned. "Wait!" He yelled out.

"Did you see something, Kiba?" Shikamaru asked, his brain already running through a million different scenarios.

"Naw, still nothing." The dog lover admitted. "Though it did start to smell weird all of a sudden."

"Weird? Weird how?" Neji, who so far had remained silent, asked.

"Yeah. It was like blood and... fresh cut grass." Kiba replied, sniffing the air once again as if to confirm his previous statement.

"Grass? Are you sure you didn't just step on it and break some?" Sasuke smirked.

Kiba rolled his eyes. "No. It was stronger than that, like a whole field was recently cut. And I mean recently. It didn't smell like that before, it just came up out of nowhere all of a sudden."

Shikamaru frowned. "Which direction was it coming from?"

Kiba hesitated, shooting a wary glance towards the Uchiha. "From the cave." He admitted.

Sasuke was confused. "So? What in the hell does that mean? Grass doesn't typically grow in caves, are you sure your nose is working right, Mutt?"

Shikamaru sighed, his frown lessening a bit. "It means we don't have time to sit around and plan anymore. Let's go." And with that, the genius jumped into the trees.

Sasuke, though thoroughly confused, followed the rest of the team. A sudden wave of anger swept through him. Though a bit childish, he felt left out. By the solemn looks the rest of the group had, he knew they knew something, but weren't sharing. It was ridiculous. The Dobe was Sasuke's boyfriend for shit's sake! They shouldn't be keeping things from him, especially now. What didn't he know?

Neji, upon seeing the Uchiha's highly distressed state, made obvious by his clenching fists and gritting teeth, took pity upon him. "How much of Naruto's power have you seen, Uchiha?"

Sasuke was startled out of his anger cloud by the Hyuuga's question. "Huh? Just what he showed at my test, and a few random spars. I didn't see anything serious, definitely not something that would explain this."

"You know about Naruto's sage mode then."

"Of course."

Neji nodded. "When he combines that power, his innate power, and the Kyuubi's power interesting things tend to happen."

Sasuke's heart made a valiant leap into his throat. The awe was so obvious in Neji's voice, he had the urge to punch him. Was he jealous? Probably. But he couldn't decide what he was jealous of exactly. Not wanting to start a fight in the middle of this precious mission, he instead settled for growling out, "And?"

Neji ignored the obviously perturbed Uchiha. The poor kid had been having mood swings worse than a woman! "And," he began, a slight condescending tone to his voice, "if we don't hurry, Naruto may not need saving." He smiled to himself.

A curious and terrified look spread unchecked over the Uchiha's face. "Wha-"

Neji cut him off. "Just go. He needs you. Now."

Sasuke didn't wait a moment longer. He sent a shrill whistle into the air calling his summon to him. The bird swiftly swept down in a gust of wind and Sasuke immediately jumped onto its back, directing it towards the cave. What he saw there stunned him. Reports of the cave, even moments ago, were normal, save for the unaccounted smell. Now, however, everything was covered in vegetation. Trees had grow to full height in what had to have been mere seconds, bushes had turned the flat plain in front of the cave into a bramble patch, thick vines covered the entrance, and flowers were still popping up randomly all over the area.

The raven urged his hawk to fly at a lower elevation, his Sharingan surveying the scene with perplexed trepidation. As he got closer, a sudden rumbling sound started beating throughout the area, rising to an almost deafening pitch before a huge explosion had obscured his vision. The force of the blast was enough to cancel his summon, forcing Sasuke to jump from chunk of rock to chunk of rock to get to the ground safely, making him fight his way to where he knew the entrance to be. His heart was pounding, his anxiety rising, but those feelings paled in comparison to the drop his heart did when the air finally began to clear and he was afforded an unobstructed view of the area.

"Kami..." His breath left him in a whisper.

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A/N: Searching for artist for cover art. Check out my profile for details. ^^)


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